Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EDITED BY
ISBN 978-0-7969-2204-5
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The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not
necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council
(the Council) or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the authors.
In quoting from this publication, readers are advised to attribute the source of
the information to the individual author concerned and not to the Council.
Preface ............................................................................ vi
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Key dates in the history of the western Bilad al-Sudan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Prolegomena
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iv
Part III: Scholars of Timbuktu
13 The life of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti Yahya Ould el-Bara . . . . . . . . . 193
14 The works of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti
Mahamane Mahamoudou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
15 A man of letters in Timbuktu: al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti
Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
16 Al-Shaykh Abu al-Khayr: illustrious scholar and pious friend of God
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v
Preface
We are pleased finally to be able to present this volume of essays to the reading public
in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. The essays were, with one exception,
all originally read as papers at a conference of the Tombouctou Manuscript Project of
the University of Cape Town in August 2005. On that occasion, they were prepared
and presented in one of three languages Arabic, English and French and we are
delighted to give English-language readers the opportunity to now read them all in one
volume. Simultaneous translation was available at the conference, and publication of
the papers in all three languages in separate volumes was our original and rather ideal-
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istic ambition, but funding for such a publishing project was unfortunately, if under-
standably, not obtainable; Furthermore, the logistics of editing a single volume has been
a sufficient challenge: with the two editors living at great distances from each other,
and authors who are spread across three continents, and many of them often away from
desk and classroom. Simultaneity in this case was a most fanciful idea, but it is hoped
that now that this collection of essays is in the public realm, the resources will be found
to translate the volume into the other languages. We are confident that we have
original essays of value here that deserve to be widely read in South Africa, Africa and
beyond. It is our hope that, in the near future, readers other than those within the
normal reach of the market of this Press French and Arabic speakers, if not other
regional languages will have the book to hand.
This world of African scholarship before the appearance of European colonialism is,
however, generally not as widely known or incorporated into school or university curricula
about Africa as, say, aspects of the continents archaeology or oral traditions. Yet the
corpus of materials to study is vast and, excluding North Africa above the Sahara,
extends across West Africa and down the East African coast and there even exists a
small body of materials in Cape Town, South Africa. In recent years some intermittent
vi
international media attention to these traditions of writing has led to a popular focus
on them; but like so much that is pursued by the media there is instant, intense and
often sparkling light thrown on the subject, only for it to be soon relegated to make way
for the next big scoop.
The written heritage of mysterious Timbuktu has attracted this kind of attention from
time to time for a short while until the next big thing came along. So that desert town
has had its 15 minutes of fame. However, we believe that Timbuktus recent fame should
be kept alive for a bit longer among scholars interested in the past of books and libraries;
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it should remain prominent among those concerned with at least a part of Africas last few
hundred years of written history. An ongoing scholarly investigation across disciplines,
and a broadening of the present narrow base of specialists concerned with this rather
neglected aspect of the history of Africa, remains imperative. We hope that this volume
reaches a wide audience with an interest in this fascinating aspect of African history.
This collection is a selection of over twenty studies, which combine specialist expertise
and accessibility about the extensive institutions of scholarship spread over parts of the
Sahara and the Sahel that region on the edges of the Sahara stretching from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Red Sea, also known as Bilad al-Sudan since the medieval period. We also
include two essays on the regions beyond, which is by no means comprehensive but
merely an indicator of what exists outside the focus area of this collection. Altogether,
these studies should whet the appetite of any educated reader or student interested in
the transmission of learning and book production. We do not make any claim to
comprehensiveness or definitiveness but cumulatively the essays provide concise intro-
ductions that are solidly researched and reliable and offer multiple perspectives on the
worlds and meanings of scholarly reading and writing in Timbuktu and beyond.
This is not a collection of essays composed only of the work of scholars from universities
outside the regions under study. We have scholars from within the region who continue
to work in, manage or own the libraries under discussion. We also have scholars whose
style of composition still has something of the classical modes of expression still taught
in some tutorials and classes in the Sahel. Even though the book does not contain essays
on the aesthetics of the written materials themselves, except for one on aspects of
calligraphy, there are enough images in the following pages to give an impression of
what future research is possible in fields such as West African arts and design, for
example. It was therefore a conscious decision to include a generous selection of images
of texts and their contexts from the regions addressed in this volume.
vii
Outline of the volume
The Prolegomena has two essays by the editors providing a background and context to
the collection. The first sets the current South African initiatives on the conservation of
Timbuktus manuscripts in context; the second examines the meanings of an intellectual
history of the region and why Timbuktu is a symbol of a much more extensive African
scholarly tradition.
and Sheila Blair look, respectively, at the history of paper and its introduction into the
region, and at Arabic calligraphic styles in relation to the older West Asian and North
African calligraphies. The last essay in this section is by Timothy Cleaveland on Timbuktus
tradition of higher education and its regional setting. He stresses the importance of
attending to the unique features of traditional forms of schooling and individual
studentteacher relations, while pointing to the role and importance of the often
forgotten town of Walata. He also offers insight into the genealogies of certain families
and their broader scholarly networks over wide parts of the region.
Part II explores various kinds of Arabic writing from Africa as sources for the writing of
African history. In his chapter, Paulo Moraes de Farias compares various genres of
historical representation from the region and calls for a critical re-examination of the
tarikh (chronicle), a genre which forms the foundation of most of the historical writing
about the Mali and Songhay states. He sets the well-known chronicles beside the rather
under-studied epigraphic evidence and invites scholars to see the authors of the chronicles
as more than merely recording disembodied facts about the past. Two essays follow on
the use of Arabic script in the writing of African languages. Moulaye Hassane offers a
survey of the issue within the broader question of the Arabic transcription of African
languages and discusses the relationship between Islamic and pre-Islamic cultures in West
Africa. Hamid Bobboyi surveys the ajami library of the nineteenth-century Sokoto
Caliphate of northern Nigeria. Murray Lasts chapter looks at the book economy of the
Sokoto state, opening up, in a most fascinating way, an array of questions related to the
circulation of written materials in nineteenth-century West Africa. Writing on the
same period and region, Beverly Mack focuses on the canon of Arabic sources used by
women scholars; she also goes beyond Sokoto to look at women writers from Morocco.
The last essay in the section is by Mohamed Shaid Mathee and Aslam Farouk-Alli, who
address the way that legal texts (more specifically, legal responsa or fatawa) could be
viii
used as a source of historical inquiry; they introduce us to a few of the cases currently
being studied as a way into the social history of Timbuktu.
Part III is almost exclusively devoted to the influential family of Kunti scholars of the
late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century. It is an expression of their scholarly
authority and contribution to the intellectual life of Timbuktu and the region, that
three essays cover the lives and works of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti (17291811)
and Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti (d.1826). Yahya Ould el-Bara and Abdel
Wedoud Ould Cheikh offer two readings of the careers of the elder and younger Kunti.
The essay by Mahamane Mahamadou, a leading scholar and resident of Timbuktu, who
has been trained in the traditional Islamic sciences, was originally written in Arabic
and follows traditional Arabic rhetoric and style. Somewhat similar in style is the
chapter by Muhammad Diagayete on the twentieth-century scholar Shaykh Abu al-
Khayr al-Arawani.
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Mali has dozens of private manuscript collections and Part IV of the volume focuses
specifically on Timbuktus the libraries and private manuscripts collections. The
chapters in this section were written by people who work, own or curate these libraries;
thus their first-hand knowledge of the manuscripts provides invaluable information on
Timbuktus written heritage. Abdel Kader Haidara, of the Mamma Haidara Memorial
Library, presents an overview of the history of the manuscript collections in Timbuktu,
dealing more specifically with the private libraries under the Society for the
Preservation of Manuscripts in Timbuktu. This is followed by an overview of the
different libraries in Timbuktu with a specific focus on the Fondo Kati private library
written by Ismal Diadi Haidara and Haoua Taore. The next chapter focuses on one
of the great scholars of Timbuktu, Shaykh Muhammad Baghayogho al-Wangari, and
the library he founded, the Wangari Library for Manuscripts. The chapter is written by
one of his descendants, Mukhtar al-Wangari. The next chapter, written by Muhammad
Ould Youbba, on the Ahmed Baba Institute, gives an overview of the history of the
archive, the challenges it faces, as well as of the kinds of manuscripts it conserves. John
Hunwick, one of the pioneers of the study of Timbuktus history, then gives a crisp and
comprehensive overview of the Arabic literature of the region, while Charles Stewart
describes an initiative undertaken by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
where a database of West African manuscripts has been developed that could become
a universal, on-line resource for Sahelian Arabic-script manuscript identification.
The last part of the volume goes beyond Timbuktu and the West African region to
consider the written legacy of the eastern half of Africa a good comparison to Timbuktu
and its surrounds. Sean OFahey gives an overview of the Arabic literature in the
eastern half of Africa, including Sudan, the Horn countries and finally Swahili liter-
ature written in the Arabic script. The last chapter, by Norwegian scholar Anne Bang,
concentrates on the manuscripts found at the Zanzibar National Archives in Tanzania.
ix
Acknowledgements
Many individuals and institutions deserve our thanks for supporting us in the publi-
cation of this work. Dr Pallo Jordan, the Minister of Arts and Culture, apart from
regular queries as to its progress, provided a publication subvention that allowed this
book to take its present form. Dr Essop Pahad, the Minister in the Presidency, has also
been a keen supporter of this work as is to be expected given his role, on behalf of
President Mbeki, in championing the building of the new premises for the Ahmed Baba
archives in Timbuktu. The Malian Ambassador in South Africa, Mr Sinaly Coulibaly
and the South African Ambassador in Bamako, Dr Pandelani Thomas Mathoma have
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assisted through their offices and personally with transport arrangements of participants
in the conference and the regular visits of researchers between the two countries. John
Butler-Adam, and before him Ahmed Bawa, at the Ford Foundation (Johannesburg)
have been keen supporters of this and the larger project.
When John Daniel was Chair of the Editorial Board at the HSRC Press, he enthusias-
tically agreed to look at our proposal and urged us to get it all going; and the team at
the Press that has worked on turning an unwieldy collection of papers into this more-
or-less coherent collection has demonstrated their customary professionalism and good
humour throughout. Mary Ralphs has been a wonderfully tolerant editor; but she also
quietly makes demands and has pursued us and our authors all over the world for
responses on the tiniest and thorniest questions of translation and transliteration,
among other problems we gave her! Garry Rosenberg plotted the bigger game plan for
this work and has helped to shape a new series of titles, of which this volume is the first.
Utando Baduza chased us with paperwork, and Karen Bruns has been imagining and
then working hard on marketing this collection for many months already. Designer
Jenny Young and copy-editors Lee Smith and Mary Starkey all gave us the benefit of
their professionalism and care.
The team of Timbuktu researchers all crammed into one office in the Department of
Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town have been wonderful in their eager
responses to being mobilised into assisting with multiple aspects of this work from
assistance with translation to sourcing images and so much more. They have certainly
gained much insight into various aspects of publishing; without them this collection
would have had to wait even longer. Susana Molins-Lliteras has been an energetic
assistant and a committed and cheerful intermediary between the editors, the Press and
x
the authors. Mohamed Shaid Mathee, Ebrahiem Moos, Nurghan Singh and Naefa
Kahn all generously gave of their time. Present and former colleagues in the
SouthSouth Exchange Programme in the History of Development and the Council on
the Development of Research in Africa, with which we have long-established ties, have
been supportive of this project throughout. Members of the broader South AfricaMali
Timbuktu Manuscripts Project also played their part; they are Dr Graham Dominy,
Nazeem Mahatey, Alexio Motsi, Mary Manicka and Riason Naidoo.
All the authors in this volume have been cordially co-operative and most patient when
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they could easily have given up on this project. Their forbearance gives us faith in those
scholars in and outside the continent who have a commitment to seeing work on
Africa actually published and circulating on the continent; one of the reasons why this
is so important is the cost of important books into the continent, so at least with this
collection there is no need to convert from euros or dollars!
This work is founded on the historic legacy laid down by the peoples of Timbuktu.
Contributions in this collection by library ownerscholars from Timbuktu are but a small
reflection of this heritage. Furthermore, this work would not have been possible without
their co-operation and collaboration, and we are ever thankful for opportunities to
work at various locations in their town. Many of them play a vital role in assisting
visiting researchers; the names of Abdel Kader Haidara and Dr Muhammad Dicko
deserve special mention; our gratitude to them also for allowing us to photograph and
publish images of manuscripts in their collections.
Our families suffered through yet another bout of our obsession with books and handled
calls by editors, copy-editors, designers and others. As ever, I, Shamil, thank Gigi,
Mazin and Haytham and I, Souleymane, thank Mariame, Sijh, Mouhamadou, Abdallah
and Moimouna for their patience and support.
xi
Key dates in the history of the western Bilad al-Sudan
covering present-day Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and parts of northern Nigeria
what is left of the state of Ghana. The state of Mali is then established.
1307 Mansa Musa becomes the new ruler of Mali and successfully extends the reach of the state.
1324 Kankan Musa brings his state to the attention of a much wider Muslim world with his famous
pilgrimage to Mecca. He arrives in Cairo with vast quantities of gold and spends lavishly in Egypt.
1325 On his return journey, Kankan Musa stops in Timbuktu and is so impressed with the settlement
that he appoints Andalusian architect Abu Ishaq al-Sahili to design Sankores first mosque, the
Jingere-Ber Masjid, as well as a palace for Musa to stay in when visiting. During this period the
Malian state also reaches the height of its success and prosperity.
1400 Mali begins to decline.
1465 Sonni Ali Ber accedes to the position of ruler of the Songhay state and under his leadership it prospers.
14931528 Under Askiya Muhammad Timbuktu becomes a centre of Islamic study and scholarly pursuits
while Songhay continues to expand.
1591 The Moroccan army conquers and destroys the Songhay state chaos and decay ensue.
1660 The Arma, descendants of the Moroccan invaders, sever loyalty to Morocco and begin to rule from
Timbuktu.
17121755 Rule of Biton Coulibaly over the Bambara kingdom of Sgou.
1766 NGolo Diarra succeeds Biton after a decade of instability after the latters death.
c.1800 Diarra conquers Timbuktu.
18101844 Chekou Hamadou reigns as head of Masina and establishes a religious state.
1857 Al-Hajj Umar Tall invades and conquers the Kaarta state which had been established by Massassi
Bambara in the 1400s. Al-Hajj Umar conquers the Bambara kingdom of Sgou and Hamdullahi,
the capital city of Masina.
1870s1880s During this period Senegal assumes the position of Frances key African possession.
6 April 1890 Sgou captured by French colonel, Louis Archinard. Later in the same year, the Tukulor army in
Kaarta is also defeated.
xii
1897 Timbuktu conquered by the French. The establishment of the Institut Fondamental dAfrique Noire.
The institute is based in Dakar and produced significant research covering what is today known as
Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Guinea, Republic of Benin and Togo.
May 1957 Attacks directed at Wahhabis in Bamako. Most of their property is destroyed. The year of
independence: Senegal, Mali, Upper Volta, Mauritania, Niger and Chad all achieve independence
from France.
Jan. 1961 Modiba Keita becomes head of government of the newly independent Republic of Mali.
Aug. 1967 Keita introduces the cultural revolution, effectively seeking to rid the party of dissenters.
19 Nov. 1968 A coup dtat ends Keitas reign and the Comit Militaire de Liberation Nationale is established,
headed by Lieutenant Musa Traor.
19 June 1979 Elections are held, and Musa Traor, the only contender presented for the presidency, is subsequently
elected president.
19841985 Northern Mali experiences severe drought and it is estimated that the Tuareg lose about 70% of
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their livestock.
9 June 1985 Traor re-elected.
Dec. 1985 War breaks out between Mali and Burkina Faso over the Agacher Strip. In 1986 the International
Court of Justice makes a ruling dividing the strip between the two states.
19901991 These years are marked by Tuareg attacks and military reprisals, often on Tuareg civilians. They are
also marked by pro-democracy demonstrations.
Mar. 1991 Traor removed from power through a coup dtat led by Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Tour.
Aug. 1991 The Swiss are able to confirm that Traor and his close associates had embezzled $2 billion.
Mar. 1992 A peace agreement is signed between the government and Tuareg rebels although skirmishes persist.
24 Feb. 1992 Marks the beginning of the electoral process, and on 22 May 1992 Alpha Oumar Konar is officially
declared president.
May 1994 Fearing further attacks by Tuaregs, the Songhay in northern Mali form a militia group.
1995 Peace agreement signed between government and the Tuareg, and thousands of Tuareg refugees return
to the country.
May 1997 Malis second multi-party national elections take place with President Konar winning re-election.
19982002 Konar wins international praise for his efforts to revive Malis faltering economy. His adherence to
International Monetary Fund guidelines increases foreign investment and helps make Mali the
second-largest cotton producer in Africa.
Nov. 2001 President Thabo Mbekis official visit to Mali and first trip to Timbuktu.
June 2002 Amadou Toumani Tour elected president of Mali. Konar retired after serving the two five-year
terms permitted by the constitution.
2005 A severe locust infestation and drought threatens about 10% of the population with starvation.
June 2006 The government signs a peace treaty ending a Tuareg rebellion earlier in the year. The president
promises a significant development and anti-poverty programme for the Tuaregs.
April 2007 Tour is re-elected, winning 68.3% of the vote; his opponent, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, gets 18.6%.
xiii
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prolegomena
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xvi
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 1
Re/discovering Timbuktu
Shamil Jeppie
In November 2001 President Thabo Mbeki travelled to the Republic of Mali on an One has to go far from the capital
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official visit accompanied by a large South African delegation. Travelling statesmen, city, to the historic centres of
government officials and businessmen usually live very comfortably in respectable learning to the north to Jenne and
hotels and meet their counterparts in air-conditioned boardrooms in capital cities, then Sgou, to Timbuktu and Gao to
they head back home. Bamako, the capital of Mali, where the South Africans landed witness more clearly the residues
and held all their meetings, is a sprawling African city along the Niger River. It has its and vestiges of pre-modern styles
share of high-rise air-conditioned hotels with swimming pools where visitors with the of schooling. There one can easily
right budgets can stay. It is a product of late nineteenth-century French colonial stumble upon children sitting
encroachment into the interior of West Africa. It had no significance before this. around teachers under trees in the
sand, or reading under a street
There is nothing to show in the capital that the modern Malian state inherited successive
lamp at night, or catch the
traditions of state formation dating back centuries. There is certainly no evidence, on the
cacophony of noise as groups of
surface at least, of Malis older traditions of education, under the sharp sun and amidst the
boys or girls practise their lessons
bustle of urban Bamako the potholed and dusty streets filled with rusty, ageing vehicles,
prescribed for memorisation.
the occasional four-wheel drive, agile scooters, makeshift markets where everything is
traded from imported bright fabrics and a variety of local textiles to animal fetishes, and
improvised housing stretching out in all directions in seemingly unplanned fashion. If
this is the physical experience of the city which hides and forgets older traditions of
urban organisation, then there are also the limits of overstretched government educa-
tional and cultural budgets that inhibit the realisation for an ordinary visitor that Mali
is also heir to an extensive tradition of indigenous scholarship.
Unfortunately for the South African delegation, the place where they may have found
some faint reference to the earlier traditions of urban life, state-building and traditional
learning was closed. The Muse National du Mali was undergoing renovation and its
impressive local collections were stacked away; an attractive new building was in the
last stages of completion. This would be a modern, western Sudanic-style structure a
mix of modernist minimalism and local forms and colour. The museum is located en
route to the countrys presidential palace which is perched high above the rest of the
capital. It is a naturally elevated spot in the urban landscape with power inscribed in it
RE / DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 1
since the official residence of the president is there and one has to literally look up to
it. Maybe this then is all that remains from earlier forms of statehood, a special space
symbolising authority.
One has to hang around in Bamako for a long time and befriend those with local
knowledge to get introductions to students and marabouts1 who still practise and value
those older conventions of reading, writing and memorisation. These marabouts may
also be specialised in the more esoteric arts of numerology and geomancy, and engage
in some healing with this knowledge. They may also be leading members within Sufi
orders. One can still find the instruments of this kind of learning in the citys main
market printed copies of classics used for centuries but in handwritten form; clean
wooden slates for writing down lessons; and vast numbers of tasbihs or rosaries, some
beautifully crafted from local woods, others made of plastic, possibly in China. These
are not meant specifically for students but marabouts and pious students will certainly
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Traditional learning has, of course, not been passed on unchanged and without
ongoing negotiations between parties with divergent interpretations of that legacy. The
French came and imposed their language and secular education in the course of the
twentieth century. Some local elites took to this; others took to it while maintaining
one foot in the more traditional Arabic Islamic schools. The French also created their
own mdersa which attempted to combine the teaching of Arabic and French but under
their supervision and control. Then from the years just before independence in 1960
there were steadily growing numbers of young intellectuals who came back from the
Middle East with new ideas of what local education should look like.2 The contesta-
tions over learning and the most appropriate way of life for Malians are not readily
transparent. One has to go far away from the capital city, to the historic centres of
learning to the north to Jenne and Sgou, to Timbuktu and Gao to witness more
clearly the residues and vestiges of those pre-modern styles of schooling and how to
become an educated man or woman. There one could easily stumble upon children
sitting around teachers under trees in the sand, or reading under a street lamp at night,
or gathering in the homes of teachers from after sunrise, writing lessons on wooden
slates, or catch the cacophony of noise as groups of boys or girls practise their lessons
prescribed for memorisation. Timbuktu is still alive with a whole range of educational
activities with origins in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial ideas and planning.
For a president to take his delegation to Timbuktu, some 750 kilometres from the
capital, is rather unusual. Indeed, given that going to Timbuktu means in so many
languages to go to an unreachable or extremely distant location, and still has currency
as a figure of speech, putting that destination down on the official itinerary may have
appeared as a belated April Fools joke on the part of the Presidency. From the
perspective of urban Mali, from Bamako in other words, Timbuktu is a dust-covered and
unexciting backwater. You pick this up in the blank looks and responses of people you
The South African president was accompanied by the then president of Mali, Alpha
Oumar Konar, who is now a senior statesman in the African Union based in Addis
Ababa. Konar was Malis first democratically elected president from 1992 onward,
after a long period of dictatorial rule over the country by Lieutenant-General Mousa
Traor who seized power in 1968. Konar is a historian and archaeologist by training
and a former minister of culture. The then first lady, Madame Adam Ba Konar, is also
a historian. With two history PhDs occupying the hill in Bamako, the subject of history
when meeting Mbeki would always be on the agenda. Their invitation to the South
African delegation to make a trip to the historically significant town of Timbuktu was
therefore to be expected. As historians serving in the higher education institutes of
Bamako in the 1970s, they had been concerned with the pre-colonial history of Mali
with the states and societies which were located in and just beyond the space that the
nation state now stretches across. For them, Timbuktu is a repository of history, a living
archive which anybody with a concern for African history should be acquainted with.
Timbuktu may be hard to get to but it played an essential role as a centre of scholarship
under the Songhay state until the invasion from the rulers of Marrakesh in 1591, and
even thereafter it was revived.3 In its previous incarnations then, Timbuktu was a
centre of trade and scholarship, a magnet to people from far and wide coming to
exchange goods and ideas. Furthermore, in this dusty settlement which young people
with computer skills and knowledge of French now want to leave for the employment
possibilities and energy of Bamako there was a lively circuit of writers and their
audiences, of visiting traders and sometimes diplomats and travellers from the remote
corners of the Mediterranean world, long before Bamako was founded. The capital may
now be the regional magnet by virtue of being the national capital but Timbuktu
definitely played that role in a previous period of the vast regions history.
Timbuktu remains off the beaten track and any trip there for an outsider is a kind of trek
from the centre to the margins of the state. But the Malian president saw the entirety
of the land as his concern. The official Timbuktu Region, numbered seven in the countrys
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 3
administrative layout, was especially in need of central government attention. There had
been increasing hardship followed by unrest during and after the droughts of the 1970s
when the term Sahel came to be synonymous with arid and barren landscapes and human
hardship which transformed local communities there. Then in 1990 a sustained
rebellion began that lasted until 1996 when, under the Konar administration, a civil
accord was signed leading to peace in the region. There had been a sense among large
sections of the population living in that vast terrain sharing borders with Algeria and
Mauritania that it was purposely neglected. The rebellions of the 1990s took the form
of a regional ethnic/linguistic Tamasheq and Moor nationalism.4 Timbuktu was on the
margins of this conflict but it did reach the town too. This otherwise sleepy settlement was
the site of protest marches and political unrest. But a peace accord had been signed and
a monument to peace constructed on the northern edge of the town. The inhabitants
of Timbuktu, who had only recently again become used to tourists, were rather unused
to the level of the South Africa state visit so the whole town was focused on the
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appearance of the South African head of state. This was also, of course, the first visit to
Timbuktu by President Mbeki and his large delegation.
South African media has historically been, and remains, more intimately linked to the
dominant northern sources of information; and apartheid education and politics kept the
population cut off from the rest of the continent. London and Amsterdam, Paris and
Hamburg, Tel Aviv and New York were seen as more important points of political and
cultural connection. The vast land mass north of the countrys border was a large fly-
over zone to be missed and dismissed. Nothing of aesthetic value had come from there;
there were no great works of art and literature, it was asserted or implied. Since 1994,
part of the continuing post-apartheid struggle has been to reorient the attention of the
media and of intellectuals, and to steer education and cultural institutions to look with
greater interest and concern to the continent (and other parts of the global south) as a
location for collaborative possibilities and not as a miserable space to pass over.
Understandably, not many heads of state, even from the continent itself, take the time
to go to Timbuktu even when they are in Mali. The Brother Leader Muammar Gaddafi
has gone, of course, and pitched his tent there. After Mbekis visit there were rumours
of the German then the French presidents planning visits; indeed, other statesmen
landed there too.
The town has attracted numerous other visitors of note since at least the time of Ibn
Battuta, the great North African globetrotter who arrived there in 1353.5 He left his
native land across the Sahara and travelled for many years through parts of Africa and
went as far as China. Timbuktu has become a destination for travellers like Ibn Battuta:
those who incessantly travel and explore and are animated by the search for fresh
human experiences and challenges; those who will go to the ends of the earth to find
something new and try to learn from those they encounter there; those who simply take
pleasure in the journey itself and in the experiences along the way. There are many other
well-known travellers who arrived in Timbuktu and left behind impressions of the
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town. There was the Andalusian migr, writer and diplomat al-Hasan al-Wazzan (Leo
Africanus), who went there on a diplomatic mission for the sultan of Fez in 1526.6
Despite the mythic status that Timbuktu achieved by the sixteenth century through
Portuguese and English imaginings of a location with immense wealth deep inside
Africa, the European explorers did not reach that illusive place until the nineteenth
century. They competed to arrive there first and some like Heinrich Barth, who reached
there in 1853, produced important observations on the town and many of the people
he encountered along the way.7
So President Mbekis arrival in Timbuktu at the start of the new millennium was as part
of a long line of travellers led there by its now near mythic status. For many, imaginary gold
was the force attracting them; for others it was the availability of books and savants.
Some had the noble intentions of learning and communicating with those whom they
met there; others were intent on producing images to feed the appetites of conquerors.
There were the cosmopolitan travellers prepared to share and discover and then there
were the colonising surveyors, writing to inform their sponsors in the industrial capitals
of the north.
There is much to learn in that old city of mud brick buildings on the edge of the desert.
The fact that various communities had been living there for centuries and managed to
establish a growing settlement is in itself a cause to engage with its inhabitants. But it had
also become over the centuries a renowned centre of learning in north-west Africa and was
also known in learned circles in Cairo and Mecca. The town as an emblem for a regional
centre of reading and writing was remarked upon by various travellers from the time of
Ibn Battuta. Barth settled there for a while and engaged with local scholars. Timbuktu
was always a distant place even in its own regional setting yet it was linked by trade and
scholarship to other locations in the region. Salt, slaves, gold and other goods were
exchanged. But so were books. Expert readers and writers, paper and copyists, books
originals and copies were circulated between Timbuktu and its regional counterparts.
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 5
The mud brick buildings of
Timbuktu, built on foundations
many centuries old.
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It was during his 2001 visit that the South African president was introduced to the
manuscript collections at the Ahmed Baba Institute. A confusing web of buildings set
around what must have been planned as a courtyard is located off the main
thoroughfare into the centre of town. These buildings hold the most significant traces
of the scholarly world of which Timbuktu was once a part. It is very easy to overlook
them and even on entering them there is nothing to lure the visitor in, to seduce you
to stay on and linger over the paper and ink, the crafted leather bindings and other
remains from the past. The exhibition space consists of two small tables with glass cases
filled with texts, none of which is wholly visible because there is too little space so they
lie on top of each other in the cases. On top of them are slips of modern white typed
paper describing the respective texts titles, authors, dates and so on. This exhibition
is like an afterthought, yet what is on display is stunning. These texts are mere snippets
of the wealth of material available in this institute. The items are beautiful and
important documents of a living intellectual past but far too little attention has been
given to the methods of their presentation. No wonder most visitors to Timbuktu and
most guidebooks appear not to capture the importance of what the institute stands for.
This institute was founded on the recommendation of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 1970 to collect and conserve the written
heritage of the region. It was born during a period of great excitement about the possi-
bilities of writing a new kind of African history and using newly uncovered sources from
Africa itself to write this history written and oral sources were to be collected and made
available to the new generation of African historians.8 President Mbeki like other
African intellectuals and leading figures of resistance of his generation has always had
authorship. There is precious little visual coverage of this inaugural South African visit
the cosmopolitan travellers prepared
to Timbuktu. Is this a sign of the significance that the media gave either to Mali, a
to share and discover and then
distant and poor African country, or to Timbuktu, that mythical place that was not
there were the colonising surveyors,
supposed to exist? But since then, there has been notable change in the coverage. This
writing to inform their sponsors in
happened because it became impossible to ignore the announcements and fund-raising
the industrial capitals of the north.
activities of the South AfricaMali Project in its efforts to build a new archive in
Timbuktu.
President Mbeki promised his Malian counterpart that his government would assist the
government of Mali to conserve the thousands of manuscripts held in Timbuktu at the
Ahmed Baba Institute. The number of manuscript items is large running into 20 000
items but the storage and conservation facilities and the human capacities to
conserve them for posterity were questionable. The tiny exhibition room had a
semblance of order, but a room meant to be the conservation studio was in disarray and
disuse and equipment looked rusty and outdated.
Timbuktu is far from the capital and the central state has many pressing priorities to
address; texts largely from another era of scholarship come far down the line on the list
of the states financial priorities. The choice appeared to be between clean water and
sanitation and investing in the conservation and display of thousands of old, dusty
books. This much Konar told the South African president. The central government,
however, had been stretching its own resources to at least keep the basic functions of
the archive in Timbuktu there was electricity, a measure of security for the archive,
and a rudimentary management structure. Bamako had also been facilitating outside
assistance, from a few donor agencies in Europe and the United States, to keep the
institute in Timbuktu afloat. A growing number of collections in the hands of various
families had also come to light and individual attempts have been made by representa-
tives of these families to conserve their family heritage (see the chapters in this collection
by representatives of various private libraries).
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 7
Timbuktu is located where the However, there was clearly a need for more resources and skills development. In terms
Niger flows north into the of contemporary standards of conservation there was a huge and growing gap between
southern edge of the desert,
what was required as the ageing paper record deteriorated, and the very little that was
making the town a place where
camel meets canoe. From at being done to protect this precious legacy.
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The next day they went from ministry to ministry, announcing themselves, until they
found that the relevant ministry was education, not the Malian national department of
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culture. Officials there looked suspiciously at this band of awkward South Africans who
informed them that they were there in response to Mbekis promise of assistance. For this
team the whole trip from arrival in Bamako, through the two-day road trip to Timbuktu
(accompanied by two sullen gendarmes from some point before Douenza), the time in
Timbuktu and the flight back on the morning when the locals were to celebrate the end
of the month of Ramadan fell into the adventure travel category rather than the
hassle-free diplomatic kind their colleagues had experienced two weeks earlier. It was a
rediscovery of Timbuktu the hard way; more like backpacking student travellers on a
low budget than officials used to air-conditioned boardrooms and chartered jets.
The teams recommendations remained filled with passion despite the bureaucratic
prose advising on what was to be done. Many trips followed, long meetings were held
to work out details, and reports were submitted urging urgent measures. Finally work
began in Mali. The conservation studio was brought back to life as Cedrab nominated
young men to go for training at the National Archives of South Africa, which would
be the engine room of the project. Training also took place at the institute itself when
South African trainers went annually on two-week training stints to Timbuktu.
Conservation became an exciting field among a section of Timbuktus young people.
A building team was constituted in South Africa and a design was developed, together
with Malian experts, for a new archival centre in the town. Later on, access was provided
to digital copies of manuscripts selected from the existing catalogues. The minister in
the Presidency, Essop Pahad, cracked the whip to keep the whole multifaceted project
focused and in line and, importantly, to get South Africans with deep pockets to give
generously to this initiative. In Timbuktu itself, the idea of welcoming South Africans
had moved beyond the event of a major presidential visit to welcoming all kinds of
South Africans from various backgrounds first those associated with the project, then
others who had learned about Timbuktu and the logistics of getting there because of
growing publicity evoked by the project. The linguistically gifted young touts who
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 9
awaited new tourist arrivals in the town soon picked up Afrikaans, Xhosa and other
South African words and expressions from these new visitors so making it easier to
sell them their wares.
Ahmad Baba (15561627), the venerable son of the soil, became a frequently invoked
name as those associated with the project came to learn more about the rich materials
deposited in the archives founded in his name, and promoted this newest effort to
conserve an African heritage and see it listed on the Unesco memory of the world
register of humankinds most significant documentary heritage.11 Baba was prolific,
authoring more than 50 works. We know of 23 titles that are still accessible. His Nayl
al-ibtihaj bi-tatriz al-dibaj is a biographical dictionary of the leading scholars of his time.12
It lists around 800 scholars, including his teacher Muhammad al-Wangari Baghayoho.
Baba left a strong intellectual imprint in Timbuktu and his legacy is still remembered,
thus the recurrent references to him. There are numerous copies of his works in
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Just as Babas name was frequently cited as the premier example of local scholarship, so
the word manuscript came to hold magical qualities as if it were in itself something
extraordinary.14 At times there were the usual overstatements and mis-descriptions in the
media, such as referring to the collections as ancient scrolls or as holding the secrets to
the African past as if the putative secrets would solve our problems or there was one
Africa with a single past. This was especially the case with references to the still unstudied
astronomy and astrology texts and items of a numerological nature in the archives. In
a time of new age searching for alternatives to consumerism and materialism it has
ironically become easy to in turn commodify other peoples ways of living their ideas,
values and practices, whether from the Andes, Timbuktu, the Karoo or Tibet and such
finds were useful materials to turn into products to sell. Fortunately, it appears that not
too much of this kind of new age usage of the Timbuktu heritage has so far occurred.
But the overstatements and ideas of secrets from Timbuktu were, in some way, part of
the feverish excitement of discovery, of unearthing an African written tradition to set
beside the oral tradition always invoked as an expression of African historical memory.
It was yet another reflection of a country coming in from the cold and discovering a
culturally rich and diverse continent far beyond its borders.
The manuscripts have also been described as ancient, which they are in the sense that
many of them were produced many generations ago, hundreds of years back, but not
meaning that they go back to before, say, AD 900 or 1200. Indeed, the earliest item
shown to various teams of visitors was a Quran dating back to the thirteenth century.
These ancient materials are mostly in such a fragile state that handling them for
conservation or digitisation, for instance has been out of the question. Materials for
digitisation and research have had to be limited to those items from more recent
periods the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and through the colonial twentieth
century.
legal materials. There is also criticism and personal invective within the scholarly written tradition to set beside the
community. So a quasi-idyllic esoteric consensus among writers was not the norm. It oral tradition that is always invoked
remains to be studied whether in certain fields of writing there was greater effort to as an expression of African historical
hide the identity of an author, whereas in others an author had to assert his identity, memory.
and if over time there was a greater movement from anonymity to declaration of an
authorial role. It does, however, seem clear that the idea of the autonomous creative
agent was not known there (in Europe it had been a construct since early modern times
and not an essential attribute of scholarship), but neither was all literary output the
product of a culture of anonymous writing.16 A similar set of issues is involved in the
question of copying and collecting of manuscripts, for a writercopyistcollector
complex constituted the scribal culture of Timbuktu.
The officials of the Ahmed Baba Insititute and Abdel Kader Haidara, in charge of his
familys collection of manuscripts and more recently the coordinator of a consortium of
similar private libraries, have been particularly generous and forthcoming in their
collaboration, facilitating research and study of the wide array of materials held in the
archives. There are only two sets of catalogues available as research aids and while they
have been most useful as a starting point, they are not without their limitations and
problems.17 They do not cover the whole corpus of materials held at either the Ahmed
Baba or the Haidara archive, and often the catalogue descriptions of items are either
incomplete or misleading. They also suffer from the general problems identified above,
that is, gaps in attribution and dating. The experience of looking at piles and piles of
manuscripts without a finding aid describing what is held in an archive is daunting. The
catalogues were therefore a great help but, even so, it was intimidating and
overwhelming to be confronted with the approximately 16 000 titles listed in the
catalogues.18 Then there are the many thousands of items in other private libraries for
which there appears to be no cataloguing project under way at all. Convinced that a
conservation project should unfold with a parallel research project, we had to almost
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 11
instantly decide on subjects to pursue in the research project. Once again collaboration
with scholars from Mali and with other established scholars in the field such as John
Hunwick was the only way to proceed. Dr Mahmoud Zouber, the former director of
Ahmed Baba Insititute, was forthcoming and supportive from the outset, as have been
the rest of our colleagues in Timbuktu, some of whom are represented in this volume.
Though the focus of the project is on the manuscripts of Timbuktu there is in fact also
another purpose at the core of the South AfricaMali project that goes beyond the preser-
vation of this body of invaluable manuscripts in a historic African town. For the South
African and Malian governments it is also a project of continental and global impor-
tance that speaks to the future. There is the comradeship that grows out of the practical
and logistical aspects of government officials and citizens from two African states,
thousands of kilometres apart, collaborating on a common cultural project. This collab-
oration is not mediated by an international agency or foundation or by northern
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powers. It has grown directly out of a common sense of purpose; it was not imposed but
has emerged organically with all the usual and sometimes comical misunderstandings
borne out of the understandable strains and headaches of working across such distances,
across bureaucratic styles and language barriers. More significantly, the area of cooper-
ation is a vastly underestimated literary heritage that is potentially a symbol of a much
wider continental heritage of creativity and a written tradition in particular. This, of
course, is the very opposite of what Timbuktu has come to stand for in popular culture
almost across the globe: a most distant and unreachable place. Timbuktu, through the
international attention generated by this and other projects, could well become a
symbol, at least in the African context, of any place with large quantities of written
materials. It is a place of paper and books, emphatically not a non-place.
This view of the continent would have a long and enduring legacy and shape the
language of conquest and domination. Implicit in and integral to the European colonial
project was a denial of history and the agency of African subjects, their cultures, social
values and practices. As Frantz Fanon wrote:
colonialism is not simply content to impose its rule upon the present and the
future of a dominated country. Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a
people in its grip and emptying the natives brain of all form and content. By a kind
of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures
and destroys it.22
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Thus, in the view of the colonial rulers of the twentieth century, history began with the
arrival of the white man, wherever he may have set his foot on the continent.
Whatever else went before or was contemporaneous with the conquests was derided,
denied and denigrated. The exception lay in the way in which the great architectural
and artistic works of the continent were seen: while they were recognised and
preserved, they were attributed to people from outside the continent. No indigenous
intelligence was possible. Even in the case of the written legacy of Africa in Timbuktu,
the popular view is that the authors of the works were outsiders, Arabs.
Throughout colonialism, this inherently racist perspective permeated the very history
which began to be taught in Europe and the colonies. Thus, in the West African
French colonies, schoolchildren were taught to remember: nos ancetres, les Gaulois
(our ancestors, the Gauls).
Yet, the impact of the colonial moment cannot easily be disavowed; it is impossible and
undesirable to ignore the impact of colonial education, for instance. No African
country that has experienced colonialism can ignore its impact and imprint and wish it
away. This applies to Mali with its French colonial imprint as much as to South Africa
with its Dutch and British marks of conquest. Adam Ba Konars observation, writing
about Mali, is apposite here: Malian historiography, indeed African historiography,
cannot be understood outside of the colonial domination from which it came and in
relation to which it is defined.23
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 13
Throughout the northern parts of The teaching of history in South Africa has not been spared the influences of
the continent, across the Sahara, colonialism and apartheid, right into the 1990s after the end of apartheid. In 2002,
and along the whole of Sudanic then Minister of Education Kader Asmal instituted a wide-ranging process to review
Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia the curricula being taught in South African schools. The History and Archaeology
and down the East African coast as Panel found that Africas place in the world was being taught with an overwhelmingly
far as northern Mozambique, we Eurocentric conception of the continent as mostly inert, and treated within the
can find rich and copious examples context of European impact through colonization.24
of Africans engaged in reading and
Initiatives such as those in the history curriculum in South Africa are therefore funda-
writing as far back as the earlier
mental. The overall project on Timbuktu building, conservation, research is part of
centuries of the previous millennium.
this reorientation of South Africa as an integral part of the continent. Thus the
They unambiguously reveal the
Timbuktu Project came to illustrate that there were places of scholarship and learning
sophisticated use of a wide diversity
with long histories on the continent. Timbuktu was an important centre of learning
of Africas languages in high-level
whose history goes back almost a thousand years, with its intellectual high point
intellectual pursuits, demonstrating
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sometime in the sixteenth century. Many of the products of this scholarship still
African peoples capacities to express
remain, either in original form or as copies made over the years. We also know that
themselves in complex forms and
these places were well connected through intellectual engagement and trade routes
African intellectual capabilities over
with other places of learning spread throughout the world. Thus, the author Leo
the centuries. Intellectual and
Africanus wrote in the sixteenth century, In Timbuktu there are numerous judges,
scholarly endeavours are an integral
scholars and priests, all well paid by the king. Many manuscript books coming from
part of African history.
Barbary are sold. Such sales are more profitable than any other goods.25
There were other towns across the Sahara which became known as centres of intellectual
pursuit, although Timbuktu has in more recent times come to stand as a kind of symbol for
these African literary activities because so many scholars spent time in it, or copies of their
texts have found their way there. Furthermore, with all this attention on Timbuktu there
is now also a growing enthusiasm among Malians in a number of towns such as Jenne
and Sgou that it is possible to conserve their manuscripts without having to lose them
to collectors from overseas. Thus a whole series of new projects has been established to
collect and conserve papers in various locations of Mali. In Timbuktu many new family
collections have been brought to the notice of researchers in the last five years.
Other places in Africa, such as Abyssinia, also had thriving centres of reading, writing
and knowledge production.26 Throughout the northern parts of the continent, across
the Sahara, and along the whole of Sudanic Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and down
the East African coast as far as northern Mozambique, we can find rich and copious
examples of Africans engaged in reading and writing as far back as the earlier centuries
of the previous millennium. They unambiguously reveal the sophisticated use of a wide
diversity of Africas languages in high-level intellectual pursuits, demonstrating African
peoples capacities to express themselves in complex forms and African intellectual
capabilities over the centuries. Intellectual and scholarly endeavours have been an
integral part of African history since the development of writing on the continent.
The vast collections of manuscripts and papers that still remain in Timbuktu and its
surrounds decisively confound the view of Africa as a remote, mythical entity devoid of
history and of the practices of reading and writing. Moreover, the views of many histo-
rians who wrote off a whole continent as of no consequence to humanity, as having
no history, who stated that intellectual history is not a field for African historians can
no longer be sustained what with this mine of information (the basic materials in the
craft of writing history) which still remains to be analysed and written up.
Adam Ba Konar, with all the insight of a historian and a woman close to the sources
of political power in her country, has criticised the misuses of the powers of historical
narrative in African nationalist historical writing. Her insight, which has also been
formulated in similar terms by other scholars familiar with the crafts of history and heritage
in Africa, should signal a note of caution against any new nationalist orthodoxies or
nativist intellectual enterprises built on the edifice of the Timbuktu manuscripts or
other similar initiatives of reclaiming African pasts inside Africa and in the diaspora.
She reminds us that Malian post-colonial historiography replaced colonial nationalist
history with its own narrow, uncritical and unreflective nationalist history and the
historians fell into a trap. What happened in Mali was in keeping with so much of the
history that was produced elsewhere on the continent from the 1960s onward:
official history, directed from above and without nuance, became a true prison
almost everywhere in Africa. It could not be corrected in public or even in private.
When it came to the heroes, a critic ran the risk of offense, even blasphemy in
relation to the warrior heroes of the past. The problem is even more complicated in
Mali where it is difficult to develop an objective history when the descendants of the
heroes are still alive, jealous of what they consider to be their family heritage, and
sensitive to the honor due to their ancestors.27
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 15
These words from a former Malian first lady who was instrumental in the programme
that initiated South Africans into the heritage of Timbuktu should be heeded by
Malians and South Africans who are engaged in working on the manuscript tradition
of Timbuktu, and indeed more generally in the fields of heritage and the craft of
historical writing. A key word to embrace in the quoted passage is nuance, for so much
of it is needed when attempting to deal with any aspect of the continents past and
present. While this project was without doubt established from above two presidents
met and agreed on an initiative it did not come with a historical narrative prescribed
from above. This collection of essays, which is hopefully only the first of many publi-
cations to emerge from this project, is not official history and hopefully demonstrates
some of the nuance that Adam Ba Konar points to as an absence and a shortcoming
in some African historiography.
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NOTES
1 A marabout is a religious teacher or spiritual guide. It is derived from the Arabic word murabit.
2 See Brenner (2001: esp. Chapters 1 & 2) and Bouwman (2005: Chapters 2 & 3).
3 See Hunwick (1999: introduction).
4 On this see Lecocq (2002).
5 For an abridged account see Mackintosh-Smith (2002: Chapter 18).
6 Africanus (1738); see also Davis (2006: Chapter 1).
7 Barth (1857).
8 See Unesco (2003).
9 Speech by the deputy president to the Constitutional Assembly on the adoption of the 1996 Constitution, on 8 May 1996,
in Debates of the Constitutional Assembly, Vol. 3 (29 March to 11 October 1996, cols 422427). The I am an African
speech appears to have been influenced by ANC founder Pixley Ka Semes The regeneration of Africa, a speech that
was later published in the Journal of the Royal Africa Society (190506). See Mbeki (1998).
10 This team was led by Mr Themba Wakashe and consisted of Dr Graham Dominy, Mr Douwe Drijfhout, Mr Alexio Motsi
and the author.
11 See www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/register.
12 Baba (2000).
13 See Mahmoud Zoubers (1977) biography of Ahmad Baba.
14 The term manuscript is derived from post-classical Latin manuscriptus, meaning handwritten (manu = hand; scriptus
= to write), used in European languages since the early sixteenth century. One definition is: A book, document, etc.
written by hand, esp one written before the general adoption of printing in a country; a handwritten copy of an ancient
text (Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press, 2005).
15 See Brenner (2001).
16 The phrase is from Robert Alter, Committee speak, London Review of Books, 19 July 2007.
17 Ahmed Baba Institute (199598); Mamma Haidara Library (2000).
18 I must also mention the invaluable catalogue, which covers a much wider area, of Hunwick and OFahey (2003).
19 Recent titles include Salak (2004) and Freemantle (2005).
20 Kant (1802: 15).
21 Hegel (1872: 95103).
22 Fanon (1963: 210).
23 Konar (2000: 1522).
24 DoE (2003: 4445).
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by J. Pory (1600, reprinted 1896) London: Hakluyt Society
Ahmed Baba Institute (199598) Fihris makhtutat markaz Ahmad Baba lil-tawthiq wal buhuth al-tarikhiyya bi Tinbuktu /
Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Rechercher Historiques Ahmed Baba (5 Vols). London:
Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Baba, Ahmad (2000) Nayl al-ibtihaj bi tatariz addibaj. Annotated by Dr Abdelhamid al Harrama. Tripoli: Dar Al Katib
Barth H (1857) Travels in north and central Africa. London: publisher
Bouwman D (2005) Throwing stones at the moon: the role of Arabic in contemporary Mali. Leiden: Research School CNWS
Brenner L (2001) Controlling knowledge: religion, power and schooling in a West African Muslim society. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press
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Davis NZ (2006) Trickster travels: a sixteenth-century Muslim between worlds. New York: Hill & Wang
DoE (Department of Education, South Africa) (2003) Report of the History and Archaeology Panel. Reproduced in the South
African History Project progress report 20012003. Pretoria: Department of Education
Fanon F (1963) The wretched of the earth. Translated by C Farrington. New York: Grove Weidenfeld
Freemantle T (2005) The road to Timbuktu: down the Niger on the trail of Mungo Park. London: Constable & Robinson
Hegel GWF (1872) Lectures on the philosophy of history. Translated by J Sibree. London: Bell & Daldy
Hunwick JO (1999) Timbuktu and the Songhay empire: al-Sadis Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary
documents. Leiden: Brill
Hunwick JO & OFahey RS (Eds) (2003) Arabic literature of Africa. The writings of western Sudanic Africa (Vol. 4). Leiden: Brill
Kant I (1802) Physische Geographie (Vol. II). Knigsberg
Konar A (2000) Perspectives on history and culture: the case of Mali. In RJ Bingen, D Robinson & JM Staatz (Eds) Democracy
and development in Mali. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press
Lecocq B (2002) That desert is our country: Tuareg rebellions and competing nationalism in contemporary Mali (19461996).
PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam
Mackintosh-Smith T (Ed.) (2002) The travels of Ibn Battutah. London: Picador
Mamma Haidara Manuscript Library (2000) Catalogue of manuscripts in the Mamma Haidara library (3 Vols). Compiled by
Abdel Kader Haidara and edited by Ayman Fuad Sayyid. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Mbeki T (1998) The African renaissance. Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung
Salak K (2004) The cruellest journey: 600 miles by canoe to the legendary city of Timbuktu. London: Bantam
Tamrat, T (1972) Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527. New York: Oxford University Press
Unesco (2003) International scientific committee for drafting a general history of Africa, various editors, General History of
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Zouber M (1977) Ahmad Baba de Tombouctou (15561627). Sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose
RE/DISCOVERING TIMBUKTU 17
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CHAPTER 2
Toward an intellectual
history of West Africa:
the meaning of Timbuktu
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
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Cheikh Anta Diop, the well-known Senegalese historian, once wrote that centuries It is impossible to give a proper
before Europe colonised the continent and questioned the primitive character of account of the history of philosophy
African mentality, Aristotelian logic was being discussed by local African scholars in on the African continent while
places like Timbuktu. Here are Diops exact words: Four centuries before Levy-Bruhl ignoring the significance of Islam
wrote his Primitive Mentality [also known by the title How Natives Think] Black Muslim in Africa.
Africa was commenting on Aristotles formal logic and was devoted to dialectics.1 I
shall question Diops affirmation later in the chapter, but let me just, for the moment,
comment on its general meaning. What Diop was saying is that it is impossible to give
a proper account of the history of philosophy in the African continent while ignoring
totally the significance of the penetration of Islamic knowledge in Africa. Because of
this ignorance (and I take this word to mean both lack of knowledge and dismissal),
the intellectual history of Africa in general, beyond the particular case of philosophy
and logic, is still a widely open field to be studied. And this needs to be done in the
light of the Islamisation of many African regions, a process that became an important
factor in sub-Saharan Africa around the eleventh century. Such a study would put an
end to the preconceived notion that African cultures are oral cultures in essence; that
Africanity is, at its very core, orality. What Timbuktu and other places where Islamic
scholarship was developed teach us is to have a sense of history that opposes this identi-
fication of Africa with orality, a generalisation which is just not accurate. Of course
orality is important in all cultures and especially in Africa. But we should not ignore
that the graphic rationality of Islam has meant, in many areas, the adoption of Arabic,
or rather Arabic script, by populations who, among other consequences of their
conversion to the Muslim religion, literally rewrote who they were and created a
written intellectual tradition that we need to study. Wolof, Fulfulde, Hausa and
Bambara ceased to be oral languages at the very moment when some people, trained in
the Arabic script in Quranic schools, started writing chronicles, myths and praise
Throughout West Africa, poetry in these languages. And a new era of African intellectual history was opened
Quranic schools associated with when scholars such as those who authored the manuscripts in Timbuktu and elsewhere
mosques educate children and
started writing didactic poetry and prose on jurisprudence, theology, Sufism and other
youth in Muslim philosophy and
the art of calligraphy. Characters areas, both in the Arabic language and sometimes in their native tongue.
written in ink or charcoal are
easily washed off the wooden This chapter will consider three points in relation to Timbuktu, the best testimony and
boards, providing a fresh surface symbol of this written tradition: the first is what I have called the significance of
for additional exercises. Islamisation as self-rewriting; in the second part the focus is on the discipline of
philosophy in order to show how ignorance of the written tradition represented by
Timbuktu has led to the ill-posed question of African philosophy as a debate between
ethno-philosophers and euro-philosophers; in the third part I study one example of a
work that represents the intellectual atmosphere of Timbuktu Tuhfat al-fudala bi badi
fadail al ulama (The Gift of the Noble Ones Regarding Some of the Virtues of the
Scholars). I conclude with a short lesson that we can draw from that work by the most
prestigious Timbuktu scholar: Ahmad Baba (15561627/9631037).
The beginnings of the mansaya [monarchy] in the Mande of royalty in Khaybar (a process of
The saga of Sunjata legitimisation which is the usual role
The mottos and genealogies of the heroes of the main Mande clans of myths). The same pattern is to be
The list of the thirty Mande families found in the written chronicles of
The settlement and hegemony of the Keyita Kandasi in the Niger valley.3 the Fulani people in Futa Jallon or
Futa Toro: a new origin Islamised by
What we see in this succession of episodes, mixing myths of origins and historical facts its linkage to the dawn of Islam in
such as the conquest of Khaybar or the beginnings of the Mande mansaya, is what I call Arabia.
using a word coined by French orientalist and philosopher Henry Corbin the
projection of hiero-history on the plane of history. By this I mean that the Mande
people rewrite their own history in continuity with a sacred narrative (hiero-narrative)
within which it acquires a totally new sense. In this case we see how Mande identity is
linked to an event that functions as a founding myth in Muslim faith and from which
it now derives its reality and meaning: the battle and victory of Khaybar. That battle
was one of the great military victories of the early Muslim community during which
Ali ibn Abi Talib, especially, distinguished himself as the hero who overtook the
reputed inexpugnable fortress of Khaybar. Now, in the rewriting of their origins, the
Mande present themselves as the descendants of the royalty from Khaybar who converted
to Islam after the episode of their military defeat. The function of this narrative is quite
clear. First, it transforms the conversion of the Mande to Islam and its cosmology into
an epic which took place at the very beginning of the Muslim religion as part of the
Islamic early saga in the Arabian Peninsula. Second, it legitimises the mansaya as the
continuation of an ancient tradition of royalty in Khaybar (a process of legitimisation
which is the usual role of myths). This kind of self-rewriting is not limited to the Mande
people. The same pattern is to be found also in the written chronicles of the Fulani
people in Futa Jallon or Futa Toro: a new origin Islamised by its linkage to the dawn of
Islam in Arabia. Seydou Camara and others have read this kind of self-rewriting as a
sign that the people who converted were ashamed of their pagan origin and therefore
manuscripts: the Tarikh al-Sudan by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi and the Tarikh al-fattash
by Mahmud b. Mutawakkil Kati. Beside their immense value as sources for the history
of Mali and the Songhay, these narratives about the societies of West Africa weaving
together dynastic evolutions, collective movements, sociological considerations, the
philosophy of history, biographies or genealogies express a philosophy of becoming, a
thought of time as creative movement. In the Tarikh al-fattash, for example, we read
that what led God to cast the Songhay state into chaos, what brought to its citizens
the punishment they were laughing about until then, was the inobservance of the laws
of God, the injustice of the servants, the arrogance of the elite.5 And that:
during the time of Ishaq, the city of Gao had reached the extreme limit of
immorality; the worst crimes, the most disagreeable actions to Gods sight were
openly committed while the ugliest misdeeds were on display. The situation had
reached the point where a[n] officer had been designated to attend to issues of
adultery, with a drum specially made for him, and the different parties would present
to him their cases against each other. Many other things were going on that would
bring dishonor to those who would dare mention them. To God we belong, and to
Him we will return.6
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun this Quranic quote by which al-Sadi concludes his
lament summarises the underlying philosophy of time and history pervasive in his
chronicle: the course of human events carries with itself, as by some immanent justice,
its divine sanction and the inobservance of the laws of God inevitably leads to decline
and chaos.
I consider my second point by first raising the question of the way in which African
philosophy has now become an academic discipline. First there was GWF Hegel, the
German philosopher, who decided that historicity and philosophy were the distinctive,
specific characters of Europe and only Europe. As a consequence, he wiped Africa out
of history and denied any possibility that the black continent could have produced
anything comparable to a thought. Exiled from reason, civilisation, true monotheistic
religion and philosophical thinking, Africa, according to Hegel, was barely the primitive
stammering of humanity, enveloped, as it was, in the dark mantle of the night a
spiritual night, needless to say. This did not apply to all of Africa, though only to what
he called Africa proper, namely sub-Saharan Africa. Egypt and its civilisation were of
course excised by him from the rest of the continent and linked to Asia while North
Africa, the Maghrib, was also to be detached from it and linked to Europe where it
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truly belonged albeit in a derived way through the promising event of colonialism
(Hegel saw its promise when in 1830 the French took control of Algiers, an event he
saluted). The only good thing that could then happen to Africa proper was, on the one
hand, European slavery, an evil per se but still a way of putting the uprooted African
populations in the new context of civilisation where they could develop beyond any
possibility available in the dark continent; and, on the other hand, another possible
civilising influence was seen by Hegel to be Islam.
After Hegel, the stage was dominated by the ethnological paradigm. The mentality of
the Africans (their mental activities could not be dignified with a word like thought)
was studied in some continuity with Hegelianism given the premise that this mentality
was considered to function as the other of reason and philosophical spirit. Lucien
Lvy-Bruhl distinguished himself in the enterprise of characterising the natives
mentality as foreign to our logic, our rationality and our capacity to think and live
by a consistent system of sound principles. In a third phase, around World War Two,
still within the ethnological paradigm, this Lvy-Bruhlian line of thought was
challenged by Africanists who claimed that African customary law, customs, ethics and
so on were to be fully understood only if seen as stemming from a coherent set of philo-
sophical principles expressing an original ontology. The notion of African philosophies
was not an oxymoron any more. Bantu Philosophy, the well-known and loudly acclaimed
book by Father Placide Tempels, appears as the model for all the works that were later
published with titles such as The Moral Philosophy of the Wolof, Akan Philosophy, Yoruba
Philosophy and so on. This phase was followed by another, when the ethnological
paradigm itself was questioned. Ethno-philosophy, as it came to be disparagingly called,
was criticised and dismissed as the wrong way of considering philosophical activity in
Africa. Philosophy must be the written (not oral), individual (not collective), rational
and critical thinking of a person presenting himself or herself as a philosopher,
according to those who denounced ethno-philosophy. They were in turn accused of
comparable to the best places of learning in the Islamic world at large in the same
period, philosophy as a distinct discipline, the tradition known as falsafa among the
Muslim sciences, had almost disappeared from the curriculum. Falsafa is what Greek
philosophy became once it had been appropriated by Muslim scholars such as al-Farabi
in the ninth century AD, Ibn Sina in the tenth, al-Ghazali in the eleventh and Ibn
Rushd (Averroes) in the twelfth, to name but the most famous. These philosophers
contributed to the universal history of the discipline by pursuing a fruitful dialogue with
the likes of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus from their own perspective, which is their
Quranic culture. The tradition they created can be said to have declined after
Averroess death in 1198. So one should not expect the Timbuktu manuscripts to reveal
ground-breaking philosophical treatises about, say, crucial aspects of Aristotelism. This
type of work was nowhere to be found in the Muslim world (at least the Sunni part of
it) during the intellectual golden age of Mali or the Songhay. But that being said, one
must not forget either that philosophy is an all-encompassing way of thinking which
goes far beyond the disciplinary boundaries. If falsafa as such was not taught in the
curriculum as we know it from the manuscripts and other testimonies, kalam (theology)
was taught, as were fiqh (jurisprudence) and Sufism (mysticism) and in all these
sciences philosophical thinking is present not to mention mantiq (logic), the science
of valid reasoning, a foundational discipline among the ulum al-din (sciences of the
religion), considered by the peripatetic followers of Aristotle as the Organon, the
instrument for all knowledge in general.
Let me mention here the work of Abd al-Qadir b. al-Mustafa al-Turudu, a nineteenth-
century philosopher that we know of thanks to John Hunwicks patient task of digging
out the written intellectual heritage of Timbuktu. He was a nephew and student of the
well-known scholar Muhammad Bello. Al-Turudu died in 1864. According to
Opposite: a manuscript
Hunwicks compilation,8 his is an example of philosophic work in the pure tradition of
discussing the celebration of
the of the prophet Muhammads falsafa, in particular his Futuhat al-rabbaniyya written in 182829 in which he proceeds
birthday, Milad al-Nabi. to a critical evaluation of the materialists, naturalists and physicists perceptions of
blood of the martyr. Aristotle and Plato, French with Descartes, and so on. They should also be fully
cognisant of the African tradition of the so-called ajami literature, that is, literature
using Arabic script in a non-Arabic language.
Other lessons are to be drawn from the works of the most prominent representative of
the elite of scholars from Timbuktu, Ahmad Baba. His importance has been highlighted
in many chapters. I would like in turn to insist on the position taken by this great African
philosopher in the face of racism, when he replied unambiguously to interlocutors who
implied that enslavement of black people was the natural consequence of some cosmic
curse against the descendants of Ham, son of Noah: There is no difference between
one race and another, he wrote in his Miraj al-suud,10 dismissing unequivocally any
idea of a natural character of slavery that could lead to disparagingly calling black
people abid (slaves), as is even today sometimes the case.
I also consider that Ahmad Babas work titled Tuhfat al-fudala11 encapsulates the
meaning of Timbuktus and of West Africas written tradition in general. At the centre
of its topic is Babas citation of a prophetic saying (hadith) that summarises perfectly the
argument made in the book: One hour of a scholar laying on his bed but meditating
on his knowledge is more valuable than the worship of a devout person during seventy
years.12 Ahmad Baba insists on the value of knowledge with the precision that
knowledge is authentic and complete only when it is a way of life, when beyond the
mastery of a science there is scrupulous attention to what a good life means, when the
accomplished faqih (jurist) is also the fully realised arif (sage).
The reason I mention the importance of Tuhfat al-fudala is that it conveys a double
lesson for us today. The first lesson about the importance of knowledge is that the
manuscripts must of course be preserved and catalogued, but turning them into sheer
museum objects is not the ultimate goal. The meditation on African sciences and
knowledge requires that the manuscripts, in Timbuktu and elsewhere, be published and
NOTES
REFERENCES
Appiah KA (1992) In my fathers house: Africa in the philosophy of culture. London: Methuen
Diagne SB (2000) Savoirs islamiques et sciences sociales en Afrique de lOuest. In Mlanges darchologie, dhistoire et
de littrature offerts au Doyen Oumar Kane. Dakar: Presses Universitaires de Dakar
Diop CA (1960) LAfrique noire prcoloniale. Paris: Prsence Africaine
Hunwick J & Harrak F (annotated and trans.) (2000) Miraj al-suud. Ahmad Babas replies on slavery. Rabat: Institute of
African Studies
Hunwick JO & OFahey RS (Eds) (1995) Arabic literature of Africa. The writings of Central Sudanic Africa (Vol. 2). Leiden: Brill
Kati M (1913) Tarikh al-fattash. Edition of Arabic text and translation by O Houdas & M Delafosse. Paris: Leroux
Publications de la Fondation Temimi (1997) La culture Arabo-Islamique en Afrique au sud du Sahara: cas de lAfrique de
lOuest, actes du colloque international tenu a Tombouctou. Zaghouan, Tunisia: Publications de la Fondation Temimi
Sami S & Zniber M (est. and trans.) (1992) Tuhfat al-fudala bi badi fadail-al-ulama. Des mrites des ulama. Rabat:
Institute of African Studies
to the
timbuktu region
introduction
part i
Site type
Early
Timbuktu
Middle
Recent
Taoudenni Basin
Kabara
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Azawad
0 2 4 6 8
Kilometres
Niger Bend
Timbuktu
Mangabera
Kabara
Lakes Region Gao
M A U R I TA N I A
MALI
Mema Ouagadou
Jenne
Bani R. Jenne-jeno
Bamako
B U R K I N A - FA S O
Before Timbuktu:
cities of the Elder World
Roderick J McIntosh
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The received foundation date of the early second millennium AD for historical Excavations within todays Timbuktu
Timbuktu now seems far too late. The archaeology of sister cities elsewhere in the have been few and inconclusive;
Middle Niger reveals an indigenous urbanism dating to the first millennium BC and survey within the immediate
there is no reason to think that the Niger Bend should have been excluded from this hinterland, however, reveals an
explosive, pervasive process. Excavations within todays Timbuktu have been few and ecology vastly different from that of
inconclusive; survey within the immediate hinterland, however, reveals an ecology today and a quite unexpected
vastly different from that of today and a quite unexpected settlement history. settlement history. Timbuktu, the
Timbuktu, the trans-Saharan trade terminus, appears to be a vestigial and much trans- trans-Saharan trade terminus,
formed remnant of an earlier, a very different Elder World. appears to be a vestigial and much
transformed remnant of an earlier, a
A very different Elder WorldAlfred Tennyson, the Cambridge first-year, would
very different Elder World.
surely have been dumbstruck by his own prescience when he penned the famous lines
of his winning entry to the 1829 Chancellors Competition for English Verse:1
Then I raised my voice and cried, Wide Afric, doth thy Sun
Lighten, thy hills enfold a city as fair
As those which starrd the night o the Elder World?
Or is the rumour of thy Timbuctoo
A dream as frail as those of ancient time?
One can only imagine the reaction to results of archaeological survey around Timbuktu
of an older Tennyson, icon and poetic voice of an optimistic and expansionist England
(although he surely would have bridled at that particular characterisation of his
national role). Would he have accepted our current understanding of the numbers, size,
importance and precocity of the cities starring the ancient landscape of the Niger
Bend during what we here will label its Elder World? Would his conception of the
world have been able to transform so radically as to encompass not the argent streets
of his romantic idyll, the tremulous domes and obelisks of ranged chrysolite of his
frail dream city, but an urbanism in Malis Middle Niger as dense and expansive as those
of Mesopotamia or the Nile Valley and apparently owing nothing to those urban
cradles for the birth of a citied landscape?
We have long relied on just six case studies to understand the emergence of such
features of sociocultural complexity as state formation and urbanism. These are
Mesopotamia and Egypt (c.35003000 BC), the Indus Valley and north China (c.2500
BC), and Mesoamerica and the Andes (c.0 AD). In recent decades it has become
apparent that sub-Saharan West Africa must be added to this list, specifically the
Middle Niger. Not only did this region experience indigenous development of complex
cultural features, it did so in a way that offers a challenging perspective on generalisa-
tions about urbanism developed elsewhere.2 The Sahel of West Africa offers, in
particular but not exclusively, new opportunities for comparative research on responses
to climate change and regional abandonment in arid lands.3 Just as the aforementioned
six cases must now open the table to a Middle Niger seventh, those same six complex
cultural traditions all experienced episodes of collapse and/or regional abandonment
(not the same thing) that may be better understood with the comparative study of
regional abandonment in West Africa.
Why this emphasis on regional abandonment? A basic premise of this chapter is that
the familiar Timbuktu of the past several centuries is a vestige of a spectacular regional
abandonment process and that hidden just beneath its present duned hinterland is a
very different, dynamic fluvial and lacustrine ecology of a not-so-very-ancient Elder
World. This Elder World of the Niger Bend may have been as city-dominated and
certainly seems to have been as dense in demography as the Lakes Region of the Nigers
interior flood plain and, indeed, as urbanised as the other basins comprising the Middle
Niger. Those basins are, from south to north, the Upper Delta dominated by Jenne, the
Masina boasting ancient Dia, the Erg of Ouagadou just north of Lake Debo, the now-
desert Mma abutting the Mauritanian frontier, the Lakes Region and Niger Bend and
finally the Azawad dunelands north of Timbuktu.4 What I intend to do here is first
briefly to describe the wind-dominated landscape of todays Timbuktu, arguing that
perhaps as recently as the eleventh to thirteenth centuries AD a very different
biophysical environment prevailed. Indeed, the familiar desert dominance may only
have been in place since the seventeenth century, with the end of a minor pluvial
coincident with the end of the Little Ice Age of the upper latitudes. I show that the
earlier lake and river environment extended far north into the present Sahara and, on
analogy with archaeological settlement patterns known from better researched basins
of the Middle Niger, almost certainly supported a denser network of towns, villages and
temporary hamlets. I then summarise archaeological surveys conducted in the
Timbuktu hinterlands, and the all too brief excavations in Timbuktu itself. I end with
a suite of questions about whether some memory of this Elder World might subtly have
conditioned the vision of the world (and of causation in human affairs and in
humanland dynamics) expressed in the manuscripts of Timbuktu.
Timbuktu is a town at the frontier of the Nigers dead and live deltas, at the frontier
between the Saharan Azawad and the Sahelian, annually inundated Lakes Region and
Niger Bend. To the natural scientist, the Azawad sand plains (and the related
Taoudenni palaeolake depressions further to the north) tell of the eventual triumph of
wind over rain and flood. Barren though it may appear to some, the Azawad is never-
theless a mosaic of river, swamp, lake, and wind-borne deposits. So, too, are all six
Middle Niger basins. Layered transformation is the best description of the cumulative
effects of alternating agencies of rain, river and desiccation that caused the complex
interweave of microenvironments throughout the Middle Niger. However, whereas
In the palaeolake region of Taoudenni, dunes trail downwind from tall columns of eroded
lake deposits. South, in the Azawad proper, ancient shallow lakes (playas), permanent
streams and once-generous rains left behind carpets of freshwater shell mixed with bones
of massive perch, catfish and crocodile. However, for five millennia, the wind has tended
to dominate. Each basin of the Middle Niger is a tight clustering of microenvironments,
each rapidly shifting in potential with a volatile climate. The peoples of the Middle Niger
have risen to the challenge of that environmental volatility by producing a web of
specialised but articulated occupations,5 resulting in a reciprocity relationship that allowed
an admirable resilience when responding to strong, abrupt climate oscillations. Thanks
to a small number of innovative, multidisciplinary research projects in the Taoudenni and
Azawad, we have detailed descriptions of the regions climate, local environment and
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The environmental history of the Azawad has been the overlapping transformation of
distinct local ecologies and micro-niches. By 8 500 years ago, the Azawad was an enormous
90 000-square-kilometre marshy (paludal) and lake (lacustrine) basin, probably with
permanent flooding at the present locale of Timbuktu. In the deepest parts of the
Azawad there were large permanent lakes (some over 500 km2 in area). Some were fed
by rainfall; some were recharged by groundwater exposed by low relief. Niger overflow
fed most of the seasonal Azawad lakes and creeks (marigots) and especially the vast
network of interdunal corridors between the massive late Pleistocene (longitudinal)
dunes covering most of this basin. During the best of times, the lakes were home to
abundant perch, tilapia and catfish, to several species of water turtle, crocodile, hippo,
and a water python that could grow to an alarming four metres.
Lake and swampland temperature, salinity and oxygen levels can be recorded by silica-
shelled algae (diatoms), molluscs, and bivalve crustaceans (ostracods).8 These tiny
organic documents demonstrate that long periods of fresh, well-oxygenated water were
periodically interrupted by high evaporation. Particularly affected by dry episodes were
the backswamps, vast low-lying regions inundated each year by flooding (ultimately
from the Niger). The annual floods probably extended north of Hassi el-Abiod only
during exceptional years. These swamps and interdunal ponds served as nurseries for
But before turning to the results of the Timbuktu region survey (and of excavations within
the city itself), let us see what research elsewhere in the Middle Niger suggests might
be the patterns of settlement associated with the rich, aquatic and mosaical ecologies
just described. The other basins of the Middle Niger share the same geomorphological
features as the Azawad and Lakes Region and Niger Bend (longitudinal dunes,
backswamps, playas, channel levees, etc.) but in different proportions and, for each
basin, in different signature arrangements. In the other dead basin, the Mma, for
example, the Pleistocene dunes forming the defining geographical structure are hidden
much deeper under a maze of lake and swamp deposits.11 Overlaying those aquatic
deposits are the archaeological remains of cities (dating back at least to the end of the
first millennium BC12) and villages (first appearing around 2000 BC13). The cities are
classic tells, mounds built up to 10 or more metres in height, sometimes 50 or more
hectares in area, constructed over the centuries by the melt of mud-brick houses, the
The grand mosque at Jenne. accumulated garbage of the inhabitants everyday debris of everyday lives. Clearly the
Jenne-jeno, or old Jenne, is SaharanSahelian ecology of the Mma could not today support cities, or the dense
probably the oldest of the
network of associated villages in the hinterland of each.
settlements in the area and
the present mosque at Jenne is
Large-scale, multidisciplinary research has only just begun in the Mma. But it seems
built on the site of one of the
earliest mosques in West Africa. certain that, when the end to urbanism came, it came very quickly. When one finds
similar cases of rapid regional abandonment elsewhere in the world it usually means
that the climate or hydrology changed precipitately, or that population size or its
concentration in large groupings became unsupportable, or that exploitation habits
were unsustainable leading to a moment of collapse or a tangle of all of these. In the
Mma, the end came by the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries AD but the mass
abandonment of these towns should not make us forget that a sustainable, resilient,
citied landscape was the rule in this highly changeable Sahelian Middle Niger basin for
a thousand years or more. And during much of that period, the flood-plain ecology of
the Mma must have been no more aquatic, no less mosaical, no more resource rich
(and no more subject to the notoriously oscillating precipitation patterns [interannual,
interdecadal, intercentury] and shifting river regime of this northern fringe of the West
African monsoonal system) than the southern Azawad and Niger Bend. Lesson number
one to extrapolate to the Elder World of Timbuktus hinterland: we can come with an
These earliest cities grew out of (again, without intrusions of peoples or ideas from the
outside) the aforementioned wetlands-adapted environments that characterised the
Middle Niger since the Late Stone Age.17 One of the signal aspects of urbanism in each
of the Middle Niger basins in which adequate regional coverage has been attained is
that of multiple, non-primate, urban centres. In other words, each basin individually
and, to judge from the homogenisation from Timbuktu to Jenne of the ceramic assem-
blages covering some 1 600 years, the whole of the 55 000-square-kilometre (or more)
Middle Niger was a peer heterarchy a vast field of interacting population centres with
none of the oppressive regional settlement hierarchy that characterised other
indigenous urban arenas in which the politics of despotism prevailed (such as post-
Uruk-period Mesopotamia, or later Shang China). From this we can take lesson number
two to extrapolate to the Elder World of Timbuktus hinterland: ancient Middle Niger
urbanism, regionally, describes a field of multiple, non-primate, urban centres.
Lastly, taking to heart the classic definition of a city as a larger settlement of heterogeneous
population that provides a range of services to a larger hinterland,18 the laborious process
of digging through the metres upon metres of tell deposits had to be linked to hinterland
surveys. In order to test the true urban nature of those settlements, there is no substitute
for month after month of trudging over every landform of the hinterland, locating sites
of all sizes and types, systematically recording the dateable ceramics on their surfaces,
noting features and artefacts that might speak to the occupations and affinities of the
inhabitants, and eventually excavating into the stratified deposits of those sites as well.
This survey, first at Jenne-jeno, then at Dia and eventually at the Mma cities as well,
provided a great surprise: clustered urbanism! Jenne-jeno is surrounded by no fewer
than 70 satellite sites, all within very close proximity. After several seasons of surface
recording, and now after excavation at 10 of the 70 sites, we are convinced that the
entire assemblage of settlements (with a 4 km radius) comprises the city.
over 30 years of excavation at Jenne-jeno and elsewhere around the Middle Niger, we
have yet to find convincing evidence of kings, or even of clear elites, at these cities.)
The dispersed clustered city was an instrument of that resistance. Such a view calls up
profound and deep-time Middle Niger views of roughly equivalent, highly occult-charged
power places distributed in a power grid across the landscape, an argument I make fully
in my 2005 Ancient Middle Niger: Urbanism and the Self-Organizing Landscape. For our
purposes here we can take lesson number three to extrapolate to the Elder World of
Timbuktus hinterland: the venerable Middle Niger pattern of urbanism created non-
nucleated congeries of specialised parts, urban clusters, very different from the walled,
citadel-dominated agglomerations with a depopulated near-hinterland that we
associated with urbanism in other Old World flood plains such as Mesopotamia.
When survey began in the Timbuktu region in 1984, we never for a moment believed
that these expectations about flood-plain-adapted Middle Niger urbanism might be
applicable there as well. To summarise: i) an earlier wetlands-adapted historical
ecology, in which high densities of population could be supported sustainably by a
deep-time adaptive pattern of ecological resilience; ii) ancient Middle Niger urbanism,
regionally, describes a vast field (over more than todays 55 000 km2) of multiple, non-
primate, urban centres; and iii) individual cities here became non-nucleated congeries
of specialised parts urban clusters. How, then, do the archaeological settlement
patterns of the Timbuktu hinterland fit with these expectations, or not as the case
might be? And what of present Timbuktu itself, that desert-oriented wreck, foundering
on the Sahelian shore of the great desert, washed onto a prevailing environment very
far from the wetlands of the live Middle Niger, terminus to the trans-Saharan trade
and, if we believe the great tarikhs, dependent upon southern sister-cities such as Jenne
even for the provisioning of its population.
In a word, the results of excavations at Timbuktu itself have been inconclusive. In 1998
a University of Cambridge student, Tim Insoll, excavated at three localities around the
In 1984, Trba Togola, Susan Keech McIntosh and I conducted a preliminary reconnais-
sance of the Timbuktu hinterland and that of Mangabra, some 90 kilometres further
downstream along the Niger.22 Not knowing anything of the environmental logic of
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potentially early sites, this survey was entirely geomorphologically driven. Judge-
mentally, we opted for thoroughly walking irregular transects, testing various Azawad
and Niger Bend landforms dunes, the recently constructed flood plain of the Niger
itself, with its scoured fluvial deposits, and more interior palaeochannels. Much effort
was spent on testing the banks of the Wadi el-Ahmar. Many new data were recovered
and the work might be said to have altered our understanding of the human landscape
of the Timbuktu hinterland. We covered roughly 50 per cent of the region, but in a way
that was entirely judgemental and not strictly systematic in a probabilistic sense.
Frustrating data, too. Our initial (history-driven) expectation was that present
Timbuktu would be a rather late (second millennium AD) desert outlier of the Middle
Niger, flood-plain-oriented urban civilisation, an artefact of the trans-Saharan trade
and, frankly, a parasite on older, indigenous cities to the south. Rather, we found a far
denser network of sites oriented to the (constricted) flood plain and the dune-
traversing palaeochannels. Briefly, in a 260-square-kilometre survey area in Timbuktus
vicinity, we found 43 sites. Curiously, no Late Stone Age sites remained on the surface
and any Iron Age sites dating to before around AD 300500 were quite ephemeral.
Spectacularly, by AD 500 there was a dense network of villages and fully urban tells, in
a pattern that closely recalls the classic Middle Niger urban clustering described above.
The majority of these sites were abandoned by 1500 (how many centuries before, only
proper excavation will tell) in a regional abandonment, the completeness (and
abruptness) of which echoes that of the Mma.
Are any of these mute cities the lost localities of the Niger Bend mentioned, but still
unidentified, in the Arabic sources Awqham, Safanku, Tirekka, Bughrat?23 Clearly an
artefact of wetter times, was this an urban network anterior and independent of any
historical settlements, such as Timbuktu? Or is that fabled town a vestigial repre-
senting just a sad rumour, a residual of an earlier, denser settlement pattern? There, far
Thinking about the survey results in terms of hydrology, geomorphology and land use
combined, it is clear from the numbers and positions of the sites dating to c.5001500
that the Niger flood stage and/or local precipitation was significantly higher, such that
the Wadi el-Ahmar (and other Azawad palaeochannels?) ran stronger seasonally, if not
permanently. The shocking evidence of voluminous iron production in the hinterlands
suggests that Niger flood alone was not responsible for the more dynamic hydrology.
Indeed, the marigot of Kabara linking the Niger to Timbuktu (and the Badjind ponds)
may very well have held water year-round further hinting that some occupation was
likely at least by the first millennium AD at the present location of the town. However,
when the Sahara triumphed and regional abandonment took place, a significant
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regional population either declined entirely, consolidated into the primate situation at
Timbuktu, or moved deeper into the live basins of the Middle Niger.
And then there is the shock of discoveries at Mangabra. We surveyed two small
transects (50 km2 total area) at a point 90 kilometres further downstream along the
river, where the Pleistocene dunes pinch the river quite narrowly, selected at random.
Never really expecting to find much in such desolation, there we stumbled upon a
curious number of large, perhaps clustered tells. Was every stretch of the river bank and
near dune landscape downstream of Timbuktu as heavily invested with substantial
occupation? Our judgemental survey simply will not allow us to say. Does the history of
urbanism in the Niger Bend parallel that of the broader flood-plain basins to the south?
Our judgemental survey will not allow us to say, but that does appear to be the case in
general. All we can say is that the Niger Bend supported urban centres and long-
distance commercial activity substantially earlier than dates allowed by traditional
historical reconstruction.24
I end, then, with a series of interlocking questions. These questions have to do with the
relevance of the Elder World to our Timbuktu of scholars, merchants and the faithful.
These questions come out of a recent development in archaeology and historical geo-
graphy, called historical ecology.25 Beyond the recognition of long-term recursive, back-
and-forth impacts of environment (including climate change) upon humans and of
humans upon the land, historical ecology takes this two steps further. The first step is
the realisation that people act upon their perceptions of landscape and perception is moulded
by all the beliefs and para-scientific insights that go into any groups social construction
of reality. The second is that, just as the landscape we see today is a palimpsest of multiple
past human actions on the land (that is, results of multiple, cumulative past decisions
about where to live, where to farm, what locales have their own vital forces, etc.), so
too are beliefs about landscape a palimpsest of multiple past experiences with or about
the landscape. I have made the argument elsewhere that an unequal mapping of power
By the time Islam penetrates Timbuktu, has the memory of the Elder World been so historical geographers, historians, etc.
thoroughly effaced that no vestiges remain in the world view expressed in the together have access to a palimpsest
1 Tennyson (1829).
2 McIntosh (2005a).
3 McIntosh & Tainter (2005).
4 McIntosh (1998).
5 McIntosh (1993).
6 Petit-Maire (1986; 1991); Petit-Maire & Riser (1983); Petit-Maire et al. (1983); Fabre & Petit-Maire (1988); Raimbault
(1990). The radiocarbon determinations reported by this project convincingly date the range of time for prehistoric
occupation from 7000 to c.3500 BP. However, there are too few samples to convincingly date any one individual site, or
determinations were run on materials such as shell that yield very large error factors.
7 Commelin et al. (1993); McIntosh (1994); McIntosh (2005b).
8 McIntosh (2003).
9 Rognon (1993); Risier & Petit-Maire (1986); McIntosh & McIntosh (1986).
10 McIntosh & McIntosh (1986).
11 DeVries et al. (2005).
12 Togola (1993).
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13 MacDonald (1994).
14 McIntosh (2005c).
15 McIntosh (1995).
16 Bedaux et al. (2001).
17 McIntosh & McIntosh (2003); McIntosh (2005a).
18 Trigger & Pendergast (1972).
19 McIntosh & McIntosh (2003); McIntosh (2005a: Ch. 4).
20 Insoll (1998; 2000).
21 Insoll (2000: 484).
22 McIntosh & McIntosh (1986).
23 Levtzion (1973).
24 McIntosh & McIntosh (1986).
25 McIntosh et al. (2000); Ashmore & Knapp (1999).
26 McIntosh (2000).
27 Such as that, among many other generators of identity and sacrality, analysed by Paulo de Moraes Farias (2003) for
the Niger Bend, from Timbuktu to Gao and Bentia and, recently, by Edmond Bernus et al. (1999) for the 420 000 km2
Azawagh palaeochannel basin in eastern Niger, where they look at the archaeological landscapes role in the develop-
ment of southern Berber history and identity, as well as specifically at In Teduq, a multi-component Sufi pilgrimage site,
itself probably just one highly charged element within the larger sacred landscape.
REFERENCES
Ashmore W & Knapp AB (1999) Archaeological landscape: Contemporary perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell
Bedaux RMA, MacDonald K, Person A, Polet J, Sanogo K, Schmidt A & Sidib S (2001) The Dia archaeological project:
Rescuing cultural heritage in the inland Niger Delta (Mali). Antiquity 75: 837876
Bernus E, Cressier P, Durand A, Paris F & Salige J-F (1999) Valle de lAzawagh (Sahara du Niger). Editions Nigriennes
No. 57. Paris: Editions Spia
Commelin D, Raimbault M & Salige J-F (1993) Nouvelles donnes sur la chronologie du Nolithique au Sahara malien:
Comptes Rendus de la Acadmie des Sciences Srie 2(317): 543550
De Vries E, Makaske A, McIntosh RJ & Tainter J (Eds) (2005) Geomorphology and human palaeoecology of the Mma, Mali.
Wageningen: Alterra
Fabre J & Petit-Maire N (1988) Holocene climatic evolution at 2223 N from two palaeolakes in the Taoudenni area
(northern Mali). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 65: 133148
McIntosh RJ & McIntosh SK (2003) Early urban configurations on the Middle Niger: clustered cities and landscapes of power.
In ML Smith (Ed.) The social construction of ancient cities. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press
McIntosh RJ & Tainter JA (Eds) (2005) Climates of the Mande. Special section of Mande Studies 6: 185
McIntosh RJ, Tainter JA & McIntosh SK (Eds) (2000) Climate, history and human action (Introduction). The way the wind
blows: Climate, history, and human action. Historical Ecology Series. New York: Columbia University Press
McIntosh SK & McIntosh R (1986) Archaeological reconnaissance in the region of Timbuktu, Mali. National Geographic
Research 2(3): 302319
McIntosh SK (1994) Changing perceptions of West Africas past: Archaeological research since 1988. Journal of Archaeological
Research 2(2): 167173
McIntosh SK (Ed.) (1995) Excavations at Jenne-jeno, Hambarketolo and Kaniana: The 1981 season. University of California
Monographs in Anthropology. Berkeley: University of California Press
Moraes Farias PF (2003) Arabic medieval inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, chronicles and SonghayTuareg
history. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Petit-Maire N (1986) Homo climaticus: vers une paloanthropologie cologique. Bulletin de la Socit Royale Belge
dAnthropologie et de Prhistoire 97: 5975
Petit-Maire N (Ed.) (1991) Paloenvironnements du Sahara, lacs holocne Taodenni. Paris: CNRS editions
Petit-Maire N, Celles JC, Commelin D, Delibrias G & Raimbault M (1983) The Sahara in northern Mali: Man and his
environment between 10,000 and 3500 years BP. The African Archaeological Review 1: 105125
Petit-Maire N & Riser J (Eds) (1983) Sahara ou Sahel? Quaternaire rcent du bassin de Taoudenni (Mali). Marseille: CNRS
editions
Raimbault M (1990) Pour une approche du nolithique du Sahara malien. Travaux du laboratoire d'Anthropologie et de
prhistoire des pays de la Mditerrane Occidentale: 6781
Risier J & Petit-Maire N (1986) Palohydrologie du bassin dAraouane lHolocne. Revue de Gologie Dynamique et de
Gographie Physique 27(3/4): 205212
Rognon P (1993) LEvolution des Valles du Niger depuis 20.000 ans. Valles du Niger, 4951. Paris: Runion des
Muses Nationaux
Tennyson A (1829) Timbuctoo. Prolusiones academicae. Cambridge Prize Poems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Togola T (1993) Archaeological investigations of Iron Age sites in the Mma, Mali. PhD thesis, Rice University, Houston, Texas
Trigger B & Pendergast JF (1972) Cartiers Hochelaga and the Dawson site. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press
44
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 4
Paper was invented in China in the centuries before Christ and was first used as a By the beginning of the second
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writing material there about the beginning of the first millennium AD. Within a millennium AD, paper was known
thousand years, thanks to the agency of Islam which united a vast swath of western and used across all of Muslim
Asia and northern Africa in a single cultural sphere paper and papermaking North Africa from Egypt to Morocco,
technology were carried from the deserts of Central Asia to the Atlantic shores of enabling its diffusion northwards
Morocco and Spain. From Spain and Italy, where paper and papermaking were also into Christian Europe.
introduced from the Arab world, they spread to the rest of western Europe, spurred in
the mid-fifteenth century by Gutenbergs development of printing with movable type.
Thanks to the availability of this flexible, strong and relatively cheap writing material,
printing made mass-produced books more common and accessible than manuscripts
laboriously copied onto parchment.1
By the beginning of the second millennium AD paper was known and used across all of
Muslim North Africa from Egypt to Morocco, enabling its diffusion northwards into
Christian Europe. Its diffusion southwards across the Sahara into the region known as
Bilad al-Sudan, however, was quite different from its route north. As Christians came
to control larger areas of the Iberian Peninsula after the year 1000, papermakers in
these areas improved and surpassed their former masters in the Muslim regions of the
south, exporting paper and ultimately papermaking techniques to other regions of
western and southern Europe. In contrast, while paper and paper manuscripts must have
been exported across the Sahara to the Muslim centres of West Africa, papermaking
technology did not reach this region until the colonial period. This long delay meant
that in Bilad al-Sudan paper remained for centuries an expensive, imported luxury item
rather than the engine of intellectual and cultural transformation it was elsewhere in
the Islamic lands.
Paper seems to have been first used in ancient China as a textile material for wrapping,
but by the beginning of the first millennium AD it began to replace the heavy bamboo
tablets and the costly silk cloth that the Chinese had used previously for writing and
drawing. Paper and papermaking techniques were carried by Buddhist monks, mission-
Paper is a mat of cellulose fibres that have been beaten in the presence of water,
collected on a screen, and dried. Cellulose is present in varying quantities and qualities
in virtually all plants and in materials made from them, such as textiles, old rags, ropes
and nets. While the Chinese logograph for paper suggests that they initially used plant
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and textile waste fibre to make paper, they soon came to make it from bast (plant)
fibres, particularly the inner bark of such plants and shrubs as bamboo, paper mulberry,
rattan and ramie, which grow abundantly in the warm and moist climate of south-east
China. These fibres would have been collected, moistened, pounded to a pulp,
suspended in water, collected in moulds, and dried. As papermaking technology was
taken to other regions with other climates, technical adjustments had to be made. In
the extreme and arid climate of Central Asia, for example, where plants such as
bamboo and rattan did not grow, papermakers used such materials as rags and old ropes
to supplement bast fibres derived from flax and hemp plants. Much of our knowledge
of early paper comes from archaeological finds in the deserts of Central Asia, where the
extremely dry climate has preserved fragments that would otherwise have disappeared.
Among the most famous are the more than 30 000 paper rolls sealed in a cave in the
early twelfth century at Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China. Some of the paper was
surely imported, but other paper must have been made locally.
Following the revelation of Islam in early seventh-century Arabia and its spread through-
out West Asia after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, Muslim armies began
to make forays into western Central Asia, establishing a permanent presence there in the
eighth century. They defeated the Chinese at the Battle of Talas in 751, theoretically
opening the way to the Muslim penetration of eastern Central Asia, but the Muslims
decided not to expand further east. Instead, men and ideas from Khorasan (north-west
Iran) and Central Asia began to play critical roles in the Islamic civilisation developing
in Iraq. At this time, Muslim bureaucrats, who had previously used only papyrus and
parchment, the two flexible writing supports known in the Mediterranean region in
antiquity, learned of Central Asian paper and papermaking. While papyrus was cheap,
it could only be made in Egypt where the papyrus plant grew; parchment, made from
the skins of animals, could be made virtually anywhere, but it was expensive because it
entailed killing an animal. Paper combined the best of both: it was relatively cheap and
The first Spaniard to mention paper was the Muslim poet and encyclopaedist Ibn Abd
al-Rabbih (860940). In his encyclopaedia al-Iqd al-farid (The Unique Pearl), he
discusses the different kinds of reed pens most suitable for writing on parchment,
papyrus and paper. Considering the early date at which he wrote, he probably encoun-
tered paper on his pilgrimage to Mecca rather than in Spain itself.2 By the middle of
the tenth century, however, substantial quantities of paper must have been available for
the tenth-century lexicographer Ibn Hani al-Andalusi to give his students paper on which
to copy books from his private library. The library of the Umayyad caliph and biblio-
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phile al-Hakam II (reigned 96176) was said, perhaps incredibly, to contain 400 000
volumes, but only one manuscript (copied in 970) from al-Hakams library is known to
survive.3 Papermaking in the Iberian Peninsula soon became a major business, not only
among the Muslims but also among the Christians of the newly conquered provinces of
Valencia and Aragon, where the great need for legal documents spurred an unusually
great demand for the material. Although Iberian papermakers were soon exporting
their product to France, Italy and elsewhere in Europe, documents show that even as
late as the fourteenth century, Fez still shipped some fine paper to Majorca and
Aragon.4 In the thirteenth century Italians began making paper near Genoa, having
learned it from the Catalans, but the major centres of Italian papermaking were to be
located either in central Italy at Fabriano, where paper was made from the mid-
thirteenth century, or in the north at Treviso, Florence, Bologna, Parma, Milan and
Venice, where it was made from the mid-fourteenth century.
Italian paper was distinguished from Arab and Spanish paper by the introduction of
watermarks, a faint design often figural imparted to the sheet during the manufac-
turing process, which served as a trademark. Dated documents on watermarked paper
have allowed scholars to catalogue and chronicle their evolution. Undated documents
can often be dated by their watermarks. In contrast, paper made in the Islamic lands
was never watermarked, which makes dating undated documents difficult. Early
Spanish paper bears characteristic zigzag lines that are poorly understood. They may
have been meant to mimic the marks found on parchment sheets.
In the central and eastern Islamic lands, where paper was adopted earliest, its intro-
duction had a transformative effect on all aspects of administrative and intellectual life,
as people from bureaucrats to scholars and writers on all subjects from the religious
sciences to astronomy, belles-lettres, cookery and popular literature began to use it.
For the first few centuries, however, Muslims appear to have been reluctant to
transcribe the Quran onto paper, preferring to use the traditional medium of
parchment sheets or folios formatted horizontally or in landscape format, and gathered
together or bound into books. By the middle of the tenth century, however, copyists in
Iran began copying the Quran onto sheets of paper, thereby engendering two transfor-
mations: first, Quran manuscripts with a vertical or portrait format became standard;
and second, calligraphers developed new, more fluid scripts from the old scribal hands
for copying the Quran.
Nevertheless, writers in the western Islamic lands continued to use parchment when else-
where it had been abandoned in favour of paper, and they continued to use the older
scripts and their variants rather than the new ones that had become de rigueur elsewhere.
The major reason for this seems to have been that the region was somewhat isolated by
its great distance from Islamic cultural centres in West Asia. This tendency may have
been exacerbated by the political and cultural situation: the neo-Umayyads ruled in al-
Andalus until the eleventh century, and in North Africa the advent of the Shiite
Fatimids in the early tenth century meant that the region became increasingly isolated
from developments elsewhere. By the eleventh century, when strong relations with the
east were re-established, the die had been cast. Furthermore, the provinces of Ifriqiya
(corresponding to modern Tunisia) and Sicily were great centres for sheep raising, and
the manufacture of leather and parchment, as well as the export of hides, remained an
important industry. Many surviving Quran manuscripts on parchment are attributed to
ninth- and tenth-century Qayrawan, although none is dated. One of the most famous
Tunisian manuscripts, the Nurses Quran, is a manuscript copied and illuminated by
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Warraq (the stationer) for the wet-nurse of the Zirid ruler al-Muizz
ibn Badis in 1020, a date by which calligraphers anywhere else would have transcribed
known in North Africa as early as the ninth century.8 undated documents difficult.
Papermaking was surely practised in North Africa from the eleventh century, since the
only medieval account of Arab papermaking to survive anywhere is the treatise on
bookmaking by the Zirid prince Tamim ibn al-Muizz ibn Badis (10311108), who ruled
in what is now eastern Algeria and Tunisia.9 Oddly enough, he makes no mention of
the preparation of parchment, although he does give recipes for making special
coloured inks to use on it. According to Ibn Badis, to make paper:
you soak the best white flax repeatedly in water and quicklime, rub it with your
hands, and then dry it in the sun until the plant stalks release the fibers. Next you
soak the fibers in fresh water to rinse away the lime and then pound it in a mortar
until it is very fine. You then dissolve the pulp in water and make it into sheets on
molds. These are made from straw used for baskets, nails, and the walls are
collapsible. Under it is an empty rib. The flax is beaten with the hand vigorously
until it is mixed. Then it is thrown with the hand flat in the mold so that it will not
be thick in one place and thin in another. When it is evened, then its water dries
away. It is found proper in its mold. When the desired [result] is attained, it is
adjusted on a flat tablet. Then it is bound to a wall and straightened with the hand.
It is left until it is dry. It separates and falls off.10
Taken as a whole, Ibn Badiss text is remarkably out of date, for he neglects to mention the
use of rags, which papermakers actually used, and he describes making paper with a floating
mould that most papermakers in the Muslim world had long abandoned for production
with a two-piece dip-and-drain mould. Ibn Badiss book is therefore comparable to
many medieval Islamic how-to manuals: long on theory but short on practical advice.
In the absence of dated manuscripts, the suggestion that North Africans produced
paper during Ibn Badiss lifetime is confirmed by the report of the fourteenth-century
writer Ibn Abi Zar, who said that by the end of the twelfth century the city of Fez had
paper bearing a griffin watermark that had probably been exported from Italy to Tunis
subjects to convert, but it took many
as part of the trade carried out between the two regions.13 Another paper document
centuries before Islam would spread
dated 23 February 1360 is written on a sheet bearing both a watermark and a zigzag, the
from the cities to the countryside,
distinctive mark of Spanish papers. It was probably made in Italy especially for the
from the elites to the peasantry, and
North African or Catalan markets.14 Meanwhile, the Egyptian writer al-Qalqashandi
from the inhabitants of the cities on
(d.1418) claimed that the European paper imported into Egypt was of the worst
the fringes of the desert to the
quality.15 Egyptians continued to make some paper known as waraq baladi into the
villages of the deep interior.
seventeenth century, but the Mahkama court in Cairo was already using European
paper by the middle of the sixteenth century, as the earliest watermarked paper there
was made in Genoa in 1524.16
Muslims were initially troubled about using these European products, especially because
some of them bore watermarked images such as crosses or animals, which particularly
conservative people found objectionable. Common watermarks included a hand (or
glove) and anchor, which are typical of Genoa; a bulls head and a pot, which are
typical of France; three tiers of bells topped by a cross; and a crown, star, and crescent.
A watermark with three crescents appeared in the early sixteenth century and enjoyed
wide popularity from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth. It was known in Italy
as tre lune and in the Arab world as waraq hilali.17 In Tlemcen, a city now in western
Algeria, the noted jurisconsult Abu Abdallah ibn Marzuq (d.1439) delivered a long
fatwa, or legal decision, on 21 August 1409. Entitled Taqrir al-dalil al-wadih al-malum
ala jawaz al-naskh fi kaghid al-rum (Decision Concerning the Permissibility of Writing
on Paper Made by Christians), it shows that by the beginning of the fifteenth century
Italian paper had entirely supplanted local production. According to the document,
paper had once been made in Tlemcen as well as in Fez and in al-Andalus, but it no
longer was. Pious Muslims were therefore forced to write on European paper bearing
watermarks that they found offensive, since the designs often contained a cross or an
image of some living being. According to Ibn Marzuqs decision, which saw the problem
At the same time that Muslims were bringing paper and papermaking technology across
North Africa to Spain, they were also bringing Islam from the Maghrib to the Bilad al-
Sudan. Islam closely followed the caravan routes from the Maghrib across the Sahara.
Thanks to the domestication of the camel, merchants were able to cross the desert from
Sijilmasa to Awdaghust and Ghana in the west; Tripoli, Ifriqiya and Wargla to
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Tadmakka and Gao in the centre; and the Nile Valley in the east. Different routes came
to the fore with the rise and fall of such northern powers as the neo-Umayyads in the
Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, the Fatimids and Hafsids in Ifriqiya, the Almoravids
and Almohads in north-west Africa, and the Ayyubids and Mamluks in Egypt.
For Muslims, who first mentioned the western Sudan in the second half of the eighth
century (for example, the geographer al-Fazari), the region represented not primarily a
locus for new converts but a source of high-value merchandise such as gold, ivory,
precious woods and slaves. With the exception of a few expeditions, the historical
caliphates of North Africa never attempted to occupy any part of the region, and schis-
matic Kharijites may have made up most of the initial Muslim presence. Even the
Almoravids, who traced their origins to southern Mauritania in the eleventh century,
based their power in the north. Although they attached great importance to the control
of the gold routes across the Sahara, they soon lost interest in the regions politics, and
their role in the Islamisation of West Africa has remained controversial.19
The slow pace of cultural contact and interaction is partially explained by the absence
of a strong centralising power that drew its legitimacy from its profession of Islam. In
the western Bilad al-Sudan, Islam was initially a simple badge of social status like the
luxury goods such as horses, salt, fabrics and glassware that were also imported from
the north. Islam gradually took root among African merchants in the cities and in the
courts of local chiefs, who might encourage their subjects to convert, but it took many
centuries before Islam would spread from the cities to the countryside, from the elites
to the peasantry, and from the inhabitants of the cities on the fringes of the desert to
the villages of the deep interior. Apart from Mauritania, where the settlement of the
Banu Hilal tribes in the eleventh century led to an early and significant degree of
Arabisation and Islamisation, the initial Islamic penetration of the western Sudan did
not lead, as it did in other regions of the Islamic world, to the rapid spread of the Arabic
In the first centuries of Islam in the region there would have been, therefore, limited
call for books and paper for writing. Most Muslims as they did elsewhere would have
learned parts or all of the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet orally rather than
by reading from books, and this would have fitted perfectly with local African traditions
of orality. Although Muslims might have built mosques for their communal worship,
there was no fixed plan or design necessary for a mosque, so local traditions could be
adapted. The relatively shallow level of Islamisation at this time did not lead to the
adoption of other aspects of contemporary material culture in the Islamic lands of
south-west Asia and North Africa, such as architectural decoration with muqarnas,
arabesque ornament, glazed ceramics or papermaking.
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Apart from the figure of Ibrahim b. Yaqub al-Dhakwani al-Kanemi (d. between 1211 and
1213), who appears like a comet in the late twelfth century, no other local writer in
Central Sudan is known by name before around 1500. The founding of the Madrasa Ibn
Rashiq in Cairo for the benefit of Kanemis students in the mid-thirteenth century
suggests that they would have returned to their homeland with some level of scholarship,
and a letter of Mai Uthman b. Idris of Borno to the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Zahir
Barquq demonstrates the presence of sophisticated scribes in Borno in 139192.21 In
western Bilad al-Sudan, the arrival of larger numbers of books and scholars can be dated
from the period following the pilgrimage of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa (131237) to
Mecca in 1324.22 While on the pilgrimage, he is said to have met the Andalusian poet
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Sahili (d.1346), who accompanied him back to Mali. The poet,
known as al-Tuwayjin (the little casserole), was the son of the head of the corporation
of perfumers in Granada.23 He was the most notable of several scholars from North
Africa or the Saharan oases known to have settled in Timbuktu in the period after
1350,24 but apart from their names there is little evidence for a broad-based culture of
writing that would have demanded supplies of paper greater than those that could be
brought in by trans-Saharan caravans.
Some authors have also suggested that al-Sahili played a decisive role in the develop-
ment of Islamic architecture in Mali, but more reasoned analysis suggests that his role,
if any, was quite limited.25 The architectural crafts in Granada had reached their zenith
by the fourteenth century, and it is extremely unlikely that a cultured and wealthy poet
would have had anything more than a dilettantes knowledge of the intricacies of
contemporary architectural practice.26 Similarly, as Sudani written culture expanded in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, few if any Muslims from Egypt or the Maghrib
would have been able to teach local residents how to make paper, because the paper
industry in those regions was already in sharp decline in the face of strong European
competition. Thus, most Sudani manuscripts were written on European specifically
Italian paper, which had been trans-shipped via such entrepts as Cairo and Tripoli.
In the seventeenth century, Tripoli became a market for EuroAfrican exchange, and A watermark with three
crescents, known as the tre lune,
the major trade routes linking western Bilad al-Sudan with the Mediterranean world
appeared on handmade paper
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shifted. The French never succeeded in gaining a commercial foothold in Tripoli, and from Italy in the early sixteenth
almost all reports of the paper trade from the seventeenth century onward refer to century and enjoyed wide popu-
Italian imports, particularly paper watermarked with the tre lune or three crescents. The larity from the seventeenth to
the nineteenth century. There
French consul Le Maire reported at the end of the seventeenth century that the trade
are several variants on the basic
between Fazzan and Borno of glass beads, bracelets, cloth, paper, copper wire and sheets design. The top row above shows
was mostly from Venice. Eighteenth-century accounts confirm the Venetian dominance the typical form. The centre row
of the paper trade, much of which was re-exported to the blacks. A 1767 British report shows a variant with one of the
crescents slightly tipped. The last
on the trade of Tripoli listed among imports from Venice: paper stamped with three
row shows a variant with faces.
moons (800 reams), writing paper (200 reams), outside quires (300 reams), another
kind of the same (150 reams). The Venetians (but not the Genoese, the Livornese or the
Marseillais) were so entrenched that the British toyed with the idea of making three
half-moon paper at Mahon (in the Balearics) to cut into their share.30 In seventeenth-
century Morocco, French paper made in Provence sold well and some was undoubtedly
shipped south. Hunwick noted the raisin watermark on a Timbuktu manuscript dated
1715 with a heart and the initials FS.31 By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
paper often ranked only after cloth as the most important article of trade among
European exports to the Middle East and North Africa, and the profit earned in selling
it was as high as that earned on the sale of any European-crafted product.32
The German explorer Henry (Heinrich) Barth (182165) wrote in his Travels and
Discoveries in North and Central Africa that Common paper, called on the coast tre
lune, is imported in great quantity, being used for wrapping up the country cloth; but
it is a bulky heavy article, and in large quantities is sold at a very cheap rate.33 Gustav
Nachtigal (183495), another German explorer, wrote in Sahara and Sudan that Paper
is also a not unimportant article of commerce in Kuka. It is very coarse...[and] shows its
Italian origin by its watermark of three crescents with the legend, tre lune.34 Their
observations are confirmed by surviving Sudani manuscripts, which were written on
paper produced in Pordenone and Friuli, now in north-east Italy. Foremost among them
are the products of the Galvani firm, those of Giovanni Berti, and an unidentified
The situation was similar in the eastern Bilad al-Sudan. WG Browne visited Darfur in
Watermark of Beniamino Arbib
179698 and found that writing paper was a considerable article [of trade].37 In 1801,
inscribed in Arabic, ya nasib (O
Fate!) found on several dozen Girard noted that of the 20 000 reams of Venetian paper imported to Egypt, part was
manuscripts from the western consumed there, part exported to Arabia and part exported to the interior of Africa.38
Sudan produced in the late Paper was re-exported to eastern Bilad al-Sudan by long-distance merchants travelling
nineteenth and early twentieth
to Sinnar (Sennar) and Darfur and to western Bilad al-Sudan by long-distance
centuries. The image in the
centre may represent a charging merchants and pilgrims travelling the caravan routes via the Libyan oases.39 The Swiss
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horse and rider with flying traveller and orientalist John Lewis Burckhardt (17841817) provides some explicit
robes and a gun. The location details for the early nineteenth century: Paper [papier de trois limes, from Genoa and
of this paper mill has not yet
Leghorn] is rather a heavy article here; it is more in demand in the western countries,
been identified, but the
prominent Arbib family had to which it is carried by the Darfour caravans: it is, however, always found in the
branches across North Africa warehouses of the Egyptians.40 Some nineteenth-century travellers report on a trade in
and in Livorno, Italy. Turkish paper or paper dressed in the Turkish fashion, but this seems to refer to
Italian paper that had been glazed in Egypt and bore crescent watermarks. After the
establishment of the TurcoEgyptian regime in 1821, large quantities of paper must
have been shipped from Cairo to Khartoum for the use of the bureaucracy; supplies may
have also reached Khartoum from Jidda.41
In the mid-nineteenth century, the French consul in Cairo, Delaporte, estimated that
the eastern Sudan trade amounted to 7502 400 reams (each of 500 sheets) of Frioul
(that is, Galvani) paper a year, no more than 5 per cent of Egypts paper imports. By the
1870s, paper imports from Italy into Darfur had increased significantly, and paper was
no longer rare. At the end of the nineteenth century, a thick brown (perhaps cream-
coloured) paper called abu shibbak, presumably referring to its weave or even texture,
was also imported from Europe.42
It is beyond the scope of this chapter to explore the attempts to revive papermaking in
the Islamic lands. Suffice to say that Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt from 1805 to
1849, established a paper factory in 1833. In 1834 he ordered his soldiers (and in 1836
the shaykhs of the town quarters) to send their old clothing to the factory to serve as
raw material. The paper, produced sporadically until 1870, wasnt very good.43 By this
time, however, European and American papermakers had discovered that they could
make paper from trees, and the virtually inexhaustible supplies of cellulose in that raw
material, quite apart from all sorts of other factors, meant that Egypt was in no position
to compete.
The history of paper in Sudanic Africa differs sharply from its history in most other parts
of the Muslim world. Elsewhere, the spread and growth of Islam was closely paralleled
by the spread and growth of institutions and practices associated with Islamic society,
particularly a culture of writing, reading and ultimately papermaking. The ready avail-
ability of paper in turn reinforced the culture of writing and reading. While raw materials
for papermaking were available in Sudanic Africa, several centuries intervened between
the first introduction of Islam and the growth of Islamic societies, and during that time
the practice of Islam was largely limited to merchants and some rulers. By the time that
sufficient numbers of African Muslims needed a quantity of paper for writing sufficient
to support local production, their co-religionists in Egypt and the Maghrib, who might
once have been able to teach them to make paper with local materials, had long
forgotten how, and the production of paper had fallen entirely into European hands.
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The closest parallel to the situation in Africa might be India, another land where Islam
appeared at about the same time. Already in the centuries after Christ, Indians should have
learned of papermaking from Chinese Buddhist missionaries, but curiously there is no
evidence that they did so. Although some Muslims settled in Sind as early as the eighth
century, about the time when paper first became known in the eastern Islamic lands, the
first permanent Muslim presence in northern India dates from the late twelfth century,
and the first manuscripts that can be ascribed to India date from the fourteenth century,
just about the time that Europeans were beginning to manufacture and export paper. India,
however, was much further from Europe than Africa, and until the sixteenth century
there was little chance that European paper would be exported that far. Instead, under
the tutelage of Central Asian and Iranian papermakers, Indians began making paper in
the early fifteenth century and they were ably to supply the needs of a wide range of
writers and artists through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Indeed, as late as
the eighteenth century paper was exported from Dawlatabad to Iran, although by the
nineteenth century most Iranian paper was being imported from Russia.
The history of paper in Sudanic Africa, therefore, is inextricably tied to the history of
Islam in the region as well as to the varying fortunes of papermakers in the Muslim
lands to the north. The nature of conversion to Islam and its relatively late date meant
that paper, unlike elsewhere in the Islamic lands, was comparatively unimportant and
that locally made paper did not play the transformative role in African Islamic society
that it had played elsewhere.
1 Bloom (2001).
2 Iqd al-farid (Cairo, 1904/1322), 2:183, quoted in Pedersen (1984: 62). On Ibn Abd al-Rabbihs pilgrimage, see Shafi
(1922).
3 Lvi-Provenal (1934).
4 Burns (1985: 174176).
5 Sold at Christies London, 9 October 1990, sales catalogue pl. 46. See Khemir (1992: 117).
6 The manuscript, now in Palermo, Biblioteca Regionale della Sicilia Ms. III.D. 10, is discussed in Curatola (1993: 180181).
7 Goitein (196794: 1:112).
8 According to Abd al-Wahhab (1956), there is a manuscript on paper copied at Qayrawan in 884 and the manufacture of
paper began in the tenth century at Qayrawan, Tunis and Mahdiyya. The oldest dated paper made at Qayrawan is from 1154.
9 Levy (1962: 3940).
10 Levy (1962: 4344).
11 Le Lannec-Bavavas (1998: 111).
12 Burns (1985: 174176).
13 Valls i Subir (1970: 11).
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Abd al-Wahhab HH (1956) al-Bardi wa al-riqq wa al-kaghad fi Ifriqiyya al-tunisiyya. Majallat Mahid Makhtutat Arabiyya 2:
3445
Aradeon SB (1989) al-Sahili: the historians myth of architectural technology transfer from North Africa. Journal Des
Africainistes 59 (1/2): 99131
Ashtor E (1977) Levantine sugar industry in the Later Middle Ages an example of technological decline. Israel Oriental
Studies 7: 226280. Tel Aviv University
Barth H (1857) Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa. New York: Harper & Brothers
Bloom JM (2001) Paper before print: the history and impact of paper in the Islamic world. New Haven: Yale University Press
Burckhardt JL (1822) Travels in Nubia (2nd edition). London: J Murray
Burns R (1985) Society and documentation in Crusader Valencia. Diplomatarium of the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: The
Registered Charters of its Conqueror Jaume I, 12571276. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Curatola G (1993) Eredit dellIslam. Venice: Silvana Editoriale
Gibb HAR et al. (Eds) (1960) The encyclopaedia of Islam (new edition). Leiden: Brill
Goitein SD (196794) A Mediterranean society. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press
Hunwick JO (1990) An Andalusian in Mali: A contribution to the biography of Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, c.12901346. Paideuma
36: 5966
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Hunwick JO (1995) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of central Sudanic Africa (Vol. 2). Leiden: Brill
Hunwick JO (2003) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of western Sudanic Africa (Vol. 4). Leiden: Brill
Ibn Battuta (1994) The travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 13251354 (Vol. 4). Edited and translated by HAR Gibb & CF Beckingham.
London: The Haklyut Society
Khemir S (1992) The arts of the book. In JD Dodds (Ed.) Al-Andalus: The art of Islamic Spain. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art/Harry N Abrams
Lagardire V (1995) Histoire et socit en occident musulmane au moyen-age: Analyse du Miyar dal-Wansharisi. Collection
de la Casa de Velzquez. Madrid: Casa de Velzquez
Le Lannec-Bavavas M-T (1998) Les papiers non filigrans mdivaux de la Perse lEspagne: Bibliographie 19501995.
Paris: CNRS editions
Lvi-Provenal E (1934) Un manuscrit de la bibliothque du calife al-Hakam II. Hespris 18: 198200
Levy M (1962) Medieval Arabic bookmaking and its relation to early chemistry and pharmacology. Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society 40: 379
Morris J & Preston Blier S (2003) Butabu: Adobe architecture of West Africa. New York: Princeton Architectural Press
Nachtigal G (1879/1987) Sahara and Sudan. Translated from the original German with a new introduction and notes by AGB
Fisher & HJ Fisher. London/Atlantic Highlands, NJ: C. Hurst/Humanities Press International
Pedersen J (1984) The Arabic book. With an introduction by Robert Hillenbrand, translated by Geoffrey French. Princeton:
Princeton University Press
Seguezzi S (1651) Relations veritables et curieuses de lisle de Madagascar et du Bresil...et trois relations dEgypte et une
du Royaume de Perse. Paris: Augustin Courb
Shaf M (1922) A description of the two sanctuaries of Islam by Ibn Abd Rabbihi (940). In TW Arnold & RA Nicholson (Eds)
A volume of oriental studies presented to Edward G. Browne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Valls i Subir O (1970) Paper and watermarks in Catalonia. Monumenta Chartae Papyracea Historiam Illustrantia. Amsterdam:
Paper Publications Society (Labarre Foundation)
Walz T (1988) The paper trade of Egypt and the Sudan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In MW Daly (Ed.)
Modernization in the Sudan. New York: Lilian Berber Press
58
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 5
Arabic calligraphy
in West Africa
Sheila S Blair
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The history of Arabic calligraphy in West Africa is a story that is beginning to unfold.
Scholars are just uncovering the extraordinary richness of local libraries in Timbuktu
which preserve large caches of hitherto unknown manuscripts, some made there in the
last few centuries. Most of these discoveries are so recent that they have been described
only briefly on the internet.1
But of all manuscripts produced in the region, the finest in terms of both quality of
materials and carefulness of execution are copies of the Quran. At least two dozen are
known, of which a generous handful have been published with colour illustrations (see
Figure 5.1).3
Like the others, these Quran manuscripts show a range of writing styles, but in general
Figure 5.1 (opposite): The
they are all well executed, with colour enhancing both text and illumination. Each
opening page of text from a
manuscript is written in a controlled, practised and uniform hand closest to the ideal typical manuscript of the
script, which could be executed with varying levels of competence and performance.4 Quran made in West Africa.
Still other differences relate to the ways that calligraphers pen their strokes. The strokes
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used in the Maghrib have softer, more curved edges than the tauter, sharper-edged
strokes used in the round hands known as the Six Pens that have been popular in the
eastern Islamic lands since medieval times. Such a difference in ductus is probably due
to the difference in pens: although calligraphers everywhere in the Islamic lands tradi-
tionally use a reed pen, calligraphers in the Maghrib slice the reed into flat slats whose
tips are trimmed with a blunt or rounded end that gives a round outline. They control
thicks and thins through the amount of ink on the pen and the speed with which they
move it.6 By contrast, calligraphers in the East use a pen cut from the full circumference
of the reed and trimmed, since the time of Ibn Muqla (886940) and the introduction
of round scripts, with an oblique cut.7
In addition, the shapes of individual letters in Maghribi script show more variation, as
a single letter can assume four or five different shapes on the same page. The shapes also
differ from those typical of the round scripts. In Maghribi script the vertical strokes for
alif, lam and ta/za are often curved, not rigidly straight, and have a large dot or serif that
faces left. The connected final alif descends below the baseline. The bodies of sad and
ta/za are elliptical rather than triangular, as is typical of round scripts, and smooth,
lacking the final notch typical of eastern scripts. In addition, Maghribi calligraphers
typically exaggerate the ends of the letters, especially sin, sad, lam, mim and nun.
region.9 Scholars such as Ibn Rushd or Ibn Khaldun moved about Andalusia and North
Africa, not always by choice. They often took manuscripts with them. Thus, the copy
of Shihab al-akhbar produced in Valencia was read 16 years later at the Great Mosque of
Cordova and is now preserved in Rabat, Morocco.
Houdass choice of Sudani for the fourth subtype of Maghribi script was also confusing.
It seems to have been predicated on the use of the term Sudani as in Bilad al-Sudan
(literally, the land of the black people), traditionally used to designate the broad swath
of SaharoSahelian land across middle Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, a region
that today is often divided into east and west.10 This chapter concentrates on the Arabic
script used in the western half of this broad belt, and one of my goals is to set out methods
to distinguish manuscripts of the Quran and other texts made there from manuscripts
made in the eastern Bilad al-Sudan. Such regional traditions may be established on the
basis of not only script, but also format and decoration as well as, in the case of the
Quran, the specific reading of the text. I shall work from the few dated and localised
manuscripts outwards to the larger group of similar but undated examples in order to
delineate characteristics of the ideal script and typical codex from West Africa and to
establish a chronological and geographical framework about when and where this script
was popular. Finally, I shall conclude with more general considerations about the
cultural significance of writing in West Africa. Along the way, I shall also suggest the
kinds of information that still need to be gathered to test these preliminary hypotheses.
Let us begin with the finest and best published manuscripts that can be assigned to West
Africa, copies of the Quran. The image in Figure 5.2, dated 8 Rabi I 1250 (15 July
1834), for example, was penned by a scribe named Sayrallah for Malam al-Qadi ibn al-
Husayn of Borno.11 Many of the same features, with some variations, can be seen in a
handful of similar manuscripts, most of them undated, including copies in the Nour and
Ghassan Shaker collections (numbers 6 and 73, respectively). All are loose-leaf
manuscripts held in a tooled leather wallet that is not attached to the text block, but
rather wrapped around it, with the flap folded on the outside (see Figure 5.3). The flap
is often pointed or ogival and can be held in place by a cowrie shell and leather thong
wrapped around the binding. The wallet, in turn, is held in a leather satchel, said to
preserve the manuscript from impurity and protect it from the evil eye, but also used to
enhance portability.12 Made of goatskin, the satchel usually has a shoulder strap and a
flap secured by plaited leather thongs.13
The text in a typical Quran manuscript made in West Africa (see Figures 5.1 and 5.2)
is copied on some 400 to 500 separate sheets of hand-trimmed paper, each measuring
approximately 23 by 17 centimetres. The written area varies, but an average surface
measures on the order of 15 by 10 centimetres. Each page typically contains 15 lines of
writing, although the number can vary anywhere from 14 to 20, even within the same
manuscript. The text, identified in at least two cases as the reading transmitted by Warsh
from Nafi,14 is penned in brownish-black ink, with vowels, sukun and shadda marked
in red and hamzat al-qat marked with a yellow dot. Green is used sparingly for hamzat
al-wasl, as on opening pages of the Quran manuscript seen by Nadia Abbott.15 Chapter
titles are typically written in red, with markings in brownish-black (see Figure 5.1).
Certain letter forms are distinctive. The letters themselves are squat, and the written
height within the line is almost uniform, such that fa/qaf is almost as tall as alif or lam,
the same height as the initial ba in the basmala that begins all but one chapter in the
Quran. Ayn is large. Sad is a smooth, toothless lozenge that is sometimes quite large,
as in the Nour manuscript Quran (no. 7). It can also be elongated to fill out the line,
as in the Leeds Quran (see Figure 5.1). Medial ha is written flat on the line like a bow
on a package. Unwritten alif is added as a thin red slash.
These Quran manuscripts from West Africa are typically decorated with illumination
of simple geometrical shapes painted in the same earth colours used to copy the text:
brown, red, yellow, and occasionally green. Examination of the manuscript in Leeds
suggests that the yellow is probably orpiment (Arabic zarnih asfar), an arsenic sulphide
used elsewhere in the Maghrib and mentioned by Ibn Badis.16 Further testing on the
red would be useful as different substances were used in various regions to produce red:
vermillion (zanghafr) was typical in the East, whereas cochineal was common in the
Maghrib, not only for manuscript illumination but also for dying skins.17 Individual
verses in these West African manuscripts of the Quran are typically divided by
pyramids of three yellow circles outlined in red. Groups of five and ten verses are
indicated by various types of filled circles. Similar marginal ornaments indicate the
division of the text (see Figure 5.2) into sixtieths (hizb), further subdivided into eight
parts, indicated with rectangular panels containing the letters ba (one-fourth), nun (for
nisf, one-half) and tha (for thumn, one-eighth). Divisions of the text into the seven parts
known as khatam al-ahzab are sometimes indicated by circles inscribed with the word
seven (al-sab). Places of prostration are marked with similar designs containing the
Several manuscripts also contain marginal notes in the same red script as the headings.
Some supply supplementary information about the numbers of verses, words and letters
in each chapter. Other notes give alternate readings and instructions on recitation
techniques, a topical subject in a region with a strong oral tradition. In the manuscript
examined by Abbott, the marginal notes consist of a word or phrase that is to be
repeated as many as 11 times, with the added instruction that this word or phrase
should be repeated in recitation each time that it occurs in the Quran.19 According to
Abbott, this type of recitation is said to be characteristic of Sufi sects in North Africa.
materials: they are copied on paper watermarked with the distinctive tre lune, paper
that was manufactured by the firm of Andrea Galvini since the seventeenth century.21
Some manuscripts may even date from the seventeenth century. A composite codex in
the Bibliothque Nationale containing fragments from different manuscripts (see
Figure 5.4) includes a final folio dated Ramadan 1100 (June 1689).22 The oldest Quran
manuscript that can be attributed to the area is one examined by ADH Bivar at
Maiduguri in Nigeria (see Figure 5.5).23 It has interlinear glosses in a form of Kanembu,
a dialect of Kanuri still spoken by parts of the Borno population around Lake Chad.
The margins are filled with several commentaries, including a lengthy one by al-
Qurtubi, whose colophon says that it was completed on 1 Jumada II 1080 (Sunday 27
October 1669). Bivar concluded that this bilingual Quran manuscript and three
similar ones that he had seen in northern Nigeria were produced in Birni Ngazargamu,
the former capital of the Borno Empire destroyed by the local Fulanis in 1808.
In format, the bilingual manuscript differs from the typical West African examples
perhaps made in later centuries. It is larger (32 x 23 cm). Each page is therefore twice
the area of the smaller manuscripts and has eight widely spaced lines of text written in
a hand that shares many features with the Maghribi style. Letters are posed on a flat
baseline and share the classic Maghribi pointing and shape, with swooping though
shorter tails, horizontal diacritical marks, unusual pointing for fa and qaf, and typical
letter shapes such as alif often with a club foot, flat sad, kaf with a diagonal bar, and dal
like pursed lips. Verses are marked with a pyramid of three balls. Like the smaller
examples, the decoration is added with simple geometric shapes in earth colours, used
on folio 1b to fill the bottom of the page, space that would have been occupied by the
eighth line of text on regular text pages.
Colophons suggest further that the scribal tradition existed in West Africa at least from
the turn of the fifteenth to the sixteenth century. The colophon to the bilingual Quran
with Kanembu gives the genealogy of the calligrapher, whose family had lived in Borno Figure 5.4 (left) Composite
as early as the last quarter of the fifteenth century. codex containing fragments from
different texts including a final
folio dated Ramadan 1100
(June 1689).
Sites of production
Localising the place of production of these manuscripts is difficult, for few contain a Figure 5.5 (right) Manuscript of
colophon and those that do are somewhat confusing. Some of the Quran manuscripts the Quran with interlinear glosses
can be connected with Borno and the region around Lake Chad where the bilingual in Kanembu and marginal com-
mentary by al-Qurtubi. Several
manuscripts with Kanembu would have been used. The Quran manuscript dated 1834
manuscripts also contain marginal
(see Figure 5.2) was made for the qadi of Borno, but the colophon reports that the scribe notes in the same red script as the
was in Tunis near Bab Suwayqah, which can be identified as a gate in the north wall in headings. Some supply supple-
the medina there. The colophon adds that the scribe wrote it in the village (balad) of mentary information about the
numbers of verses, words and
w-z-k, repeating the name of the settlement, the village of w-z-q, with a different
letters. Other notes give alternate
spelling. Tim Stanley has suggested that the scribe might have moved to Tunis or was readings and instructions on
en route from his home in West Africa to Tunis.24 recitation techniques.
The distinctive script used in these West African manuscripts clearly derives from
Maghribi, but scholars have debated which other subtype was the immediate source.
Bivar designated the West African script ifriqi, meaning from Ifriqiya, the Arabic name
for the region comprising modern-day Tunisia and western Algeria.25 As evidence, he
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cited the statement by the great North African historian Ibn Khaldun, writing c.1375,
who reported that Muslim calligraphers fleeing from Andalusia introduced a more
delicate and flowing hand which had replaced the styles used earlier in North Africa,
notably at Qayrawan and Mahdiyya.26 The old scripts, Ibn Khaldun continued, were
preserved only in a few towns in the Jarid, a word literally meaning palms and a term
designating the region of south-western Tunisia in the Sahara. Bivar argued that the old
style of script was also preserved south of the Sahara in the Sahel, brought there by the
Almoravids during their conquests of the Upper Niger region. He distinguished this
heavy angular ifriqi script from a thinner and more flexible hand that he, like Houdas,
called Andalusi.
Though ingenious, Bivars arguments are ultimately unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons,
ranging from historical to palaeographic.27 The Almoravids, who introduced Maliki
Islam and many other features to the Sahel, never controlled Ifriqiya, the presumed
home of the ifriqi script, although they might have imported manuscripts from there.28
Furthermore, the style that developed in tenth-century Tunisia was different, more
closely related to developments in the East.29 A legal text copied in 1015, almost
certainly in Qayrawan, shows many characteristics of eastern scripts, such as sad with a
bump and medial ha shaped like a figure 8 that descends below the baseline.30
The script used in the Quran manuscripts from West Africa, by contrast, shares many,
many characteristics with the western Maghribi style used in Morocco and Andalusia.31
Sad is written without a final tooth, as in the Maghribi style, and medial ha also follows
the Maghribi rather than the eastern style. To see this, we can compare typical pages
from Quran manuscripts made in West Africa (see Figures 5.1 and 5.2) and Morocco,
specifically a copy transcribed in 975 (1568) for the Sharifan sultan of Morocco, Mawlay
Abdallah ibn Muhammad (see Figure 5.6).32 Both scripts are distinguished by swooping
tails and flat diacritical marks, alif with a club foot, dal like pursed lips, kaf with a
diagonal bar. Both have a medial ha that sits on the baseline like a bow and a very large
Figure 5. 6 Manuscript of the Quran copied in 975 (1568) for the Sharifan sultan of Morocco, Mawlay Abdallah ibn Muhammad.
Features of layout used in West African manuscripts of the Quran also continue those
used further north in Morocco and Andalusia. The commentary in the bilingual Quran
(see Figure 5.5) circles around the text, the epistolary tradition used in Andalusia as
shown by a rare cache of 162 letters written by various Muslim rulers of Spain and
North Africa to the kings of AragonCatalonia.34 The text on one dated 10 Shaban
745 (17 September 1344) that was written by Yusuf I, Nasrid ruler of Granada, to Peter
IV (the Ceremonious) of Aragon, for example, begins in the horizontal lines but then
continues in a circle to fill the page, the same kind of circular format as in the Kanembu
bilingual Quran manuscript. Similarly, religious manuscripts from West Africa, such as
a book of litanies and prayers with the names of Muhammad and litanies to be recited
on Saturday,35 use the small square format that remained common in the western
Maghrib long after it had been abandoned in the west. Such a format is used, among
many other examples, for a well-known Quran manuscript made at Cordova in 1143,36
and it continued to be used until the nineteenth century, as shown by copies of the
Dalail al-khayrat in the Berlin Museum and the Shaker collection.37
The decoration of West African manuscripts of the Quran also shows features of the
style used in the western Maghrib. The pyramid of three balls, for example, is part of a
long tradition there, found also in the Cordovan Quran of 1143. The illumination in
West African Quran and other manuscripts also relates to traditions further north. The
Western Maghribi script had long been the model in the area. The earliest examples of
Arabic calligraphy to survive from western Africa comprise a group of tombstones
found near Gao.40 At least four seem to have been carved at Almera in Andalusia and
shipped to West Africa where they provided the models for local copies. Moroccan
manuscripts were also imported to West Africa. The oldest codices in the Kati
collection, for example, were made in Morocco, to judge from the style of a copy of al-
Bukharis Sahih (Authentic) transcribed in 1419 (see Figure 5.7).41 Similarly, a copy of
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Iyad ibn Musas al-Shifa bi-tarif huquq al-mustafa (Healing by the Recognition of the
Rights of the Chosen One) in the collection of Malam Nagwamatse of Sokoto was
probably transcribed at Fez in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.42
We can therefore pose the following outline for the development of Arabic calligraphy
in West Africa. Arabic manuscripts were clearly read and appreciated there since the
conversion of rulers to Islam. The Moroccan globetrotter Ibn Battuta, who visited the
area in 1353, mentioned that the people of Walata regularly studied religious law and
memorised the Quran.43 He also tells us that for the feast held in his honour in the
Malian capital, Quran cases were brought and the whole Quran was read.44 The
construction of mosques throughout the region may well have been accompanied by
the endowment of Quran manuscripts for public reading.
For practical reasons, notably the lack of paper, it is likely that in these earlier centuries
the manuscripts were imported, probably from Morocco. Ibn Battuta noted that the
kings of Mali sent members of the ulama to Fez and exchanged embassies with the
Marinid ruler Abu al-Hasan. These embassies may well have brought back books, long
popular as official gifts. Illustrations show us, for example, that Safavid embassies often
presented books to their rivals, the Ottomans.45 Scholars also brought manuscripts from
North to West Africa. A note in one manuscript in the Fondo Kati Library states that
it was purchased in the Saharan oasis of Tuwat in 1467 while the purchaser was en route
from Toledo to West Africa.46 Pilgrims too probably brought home copies of the Quran
and bestowed them on family and friends.47
With the increasing prevalence of a written rather than an oral tradition and the
increased availability of materials, West Africans began to produce their own manuscripts.
Production may have begun as early as the sixteenth century, and increased gradually
Looking at the manuscripts themselves shows us that production in West Africa was
very much a local affair. The materials were expensive. The imported paper was often
cut from larger sheets, with various kinds combined in the same manuscript. The Leeds
Quran (see Figure 5.1), for example, uses three different types of paper.49 The one
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examined by Abbott is copied mainly on paper watermarked with the Arabic phrase ya
nasib, the name Beniamino Arbib written in Roman characters, and the figure of a
horseman, but the manuscript also has two folios of heavier paper watermarked with
the tre lune. The expense of the paper is clear from layout as well. Scribes such as the
one who copied the Kanembu Quran were anxious to use every surface available. Pens
too were expensive. Brocketts close examination of the copy in Leeds shows that the
nib became increasingly blunt over the pages, showing that the scribe wanted to
preserve the nib for as long as possible. The inks and pigments for text and illumination
are also local, and there is no use of gold, a hallmark of fancier manuscripts produced
elsewhere in the Maghrib. Such an absence is somewhat ironic, given that gold was a
major export of the region.
Various features of format and decoration also indicate that production in West Africa
was more a matter of home production than a formal school with set rules. The pages
are not ruled, and the number of lines varies within a single manuscript. Marginal notes
are added in various directions and places. There is no indication of a division of labour
between scribe and illuminator, and indeed the note in the Quran manuscript examined
by Abbott suggests that both were the same. In contrast, these became specialised tasks
in Iran and the East from the twelfth century and in the Maghrib shortly thereafter, as
shown by both signatures and pigment analysis.50 The illumination of these West
African manuscripts also comprises simple designs, often drawn from the textile
repertory, patterns that could be worked out directly on the surface. In contrast, the
elaborate floral arabesques typical of eastern manuscripts require cartoons or templates
that were part of the workshop practice.51 In the East, canons of calligraphy were passed
from master to pupil by instruction in organised schools, written manuals, and albums
with specimens of specific scripts. The codification of a tradition there makes it difficult
if not impossible to identify individual hands.52 In West Africa, by contrast, learning
even Arabic script was often oral and visual (rather than written and kinetic), often
taught through the use of writing boards.53 Hence, it is no surprise that there is greater
deviation from any ideal West African script and more variety of individual hands.
Despite the variety of hands used to copy Quran manuscripts in West Africa, we may
be able to distinguish them from manuscripts copied further east in what is now the
Republic of the Sudan, as in a copy in Leeds dated 1881 (ms. 619) and one in the Shaker
collection dated 17 Ramadan 1296 (August 1879) (see Figure 5.8).54 One major
difference is the reading: the Leeds manuscript contains that of the Basran Abu Amr,
a reading that was widespread only in the eastern Bilad al-Sudan.55 This text can be
distinguished from that of Nafi via Warsh, a reading that is popular in Libya and West
Africa.56 Identifying the reading in an individual manuscript is therefore essential infor-
mation in publishing a Quran manuscript, particularly one from these later centuries.
The script in these two Quran manuscripts from the eastern Bilad al-Sudan is also
different. It derives from the regular round script known as naskh. It shares certain letter
shapes with eastern styles, notably medial ha written as a figure 8 rather than a flat bow.
The script slants distinctly to the left, a feature also found in a Quran manuscript dated
Shawwal 1162 (SeptemberOctober 1749) and once in Zanzibar.57 Like the example in
the Shaker collection (see Figure 5.8), the one associated with Zanzibar is larger (33 x
22 cm). It also shares features with manuscripts in the distinctive bihari script used in
India, such as an upper and lower line in larger script and illuminated pages in the
beginning, middle and end.
In short, the script used in manuscripts from West Africa forms a distinct subgroup of the
Maghribi script used in North Africa. Copyists in West Africa used a more formal variety
NOTES
1 See, for example, the article on the Kati Library at http://www.saharanstudies.org/projects/kati/ or one by the University of
Oslo on the libraries of Timbuktu at http://www.sum.uio.no/timbuktu/index.html.
2 For the exhibition Ancient manuscripts from the libraries in Timbuktu, see http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/.
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3 There are, for example, two Quran manuscripts from West Africa in the Nour collection, London see Bayani et al.
(1999: numbers 6, 7). Tim Stanleys essay there, The Quranic script of Western Sudan: Maghribi or Ifriqi, note 1,
gives a list of other similar manuscripts. The best published manuscript is the copy in Leeds illustrated in Figure 5.1,
for which see Brockett (1987). One of the earliest to be published was examined by Nadia Abbott (1949) in Chicago in
the 1940s. The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, one of the largest repositories of Quran manuscripts outside the Islamic
lands, owns five: see Arberry (1967: numbers 131 and 239242), but illustrations of only one double page (ms. 1594)
and one binding (ms. 1599) have been published; James (1980: numbers 94, 115). The Bibliothque Nationale in Paris
has 10, but no illustrations have been published see Droche (1985: numbers 334343). Colour reproductions of
others include manuscripts in the Ghassan Shaker collection (Safwat 2000: number 73) and one in the Russian Academy
of Sciences, St Petersburg (number C-1689; Petrosyan et al. [1995: number 67]).
4 By script, I follow the definition given by Michael Gullick in the introduction to his article on script in Volume 28 of Turner
(1996: 303) system or style of writing. Scripts are identifiable and their particular features enumerated, as a consistent
graphic representation of notations or letters of the alphabet. A script is therefore a hypothetical model; it can be
distinguished from a hand, what a particular individual writes. Gullick used the example of italic: Michelangelo and Queen
Elizabeth I both wrote italic letters, but they had very different hands. On the terms competence and performance,
developed by Noam Chomsky for linguistics, as applied to Arabic writing on papyri from the early period, see Khan
(1993: 19).
5 Houdas (1886). For an appraisal of his work, see Droche (1994).
6 My thanks to Muhammad Zakariya who supplied this lucid description of the pens used in the Maghrib today. On this,
as on many other aspects of contemporary Arabic calligraphy, he remains a master of traditional styles.
7 For examples of the pen, see Droche (2000: 114115 and figure 34); Guesdon & Vernay-Nouri (2001: number 6), also
reproduced in Blair (2006).
8 Rabat, Bibliothque Royale 1810; illustrated in Dodds (1992: number 77). The text is transcribed in the larger, looser
Fasi and the marginal notes in the smaller Andalusi.
9 On this point, see Blair (2006: chapter 6).
10 See for example Gibb et al. (1960), in which the article Sudan, Bilad al- is subdivided into eastern and western.
11 Quaritch Catalogue (1995: number 21). The manuscript was formerly in the Newberry Library, Chicago (Or. Ms. 235),
which acquired it from the collection of Henry Probasco; his bookplate is dated 1 December 1890.
12 See also Droche (2000: 309 and figures 86, 87).
13 James (1980: number 115); Safwat (2000: number 73).
14 This is the case with the manuscript in Leeds (see Figure 5.1); Brockett (1987: 45); and the one in St Petersburg
(Petrosyan et al. 1995: number 67).
15 Abbott (1949: 63).
16 Brockett (1987: note 23).
17 Droche (2000: 155156).
18 Abbott (1949: 64).
19 Abbott (1949: 64).
Droche (1999).
30 Reproduced in Bayani et al. (1999: 32).
31 Bivars identification of this script as ifriqi on the basis of Ibn Khalduns use of the name poses the same problem that
scholars have encountered in trying to identify early Arabic scripts on the basis of references in Ibn al-Nadims Fihrist:
without dated and identified examples, it is difficult, if not impossible, to match names mentioned in texts with extant
examples.
32 London, BL 1405; Lings & Safadi (1976: number 50); Lings (1976: 108110); Safadi (1978: figures 79, 80); Blair (2006:
figures 12, 13).
33 Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, ms. 38992; Droche (1985: numbers 305308).
34 Alarcn y Santn & Garca de Linares (1940); Valls i Subir (1978).
35 Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, ms. arabe 6869; Guesdon & Vernay-Nouri (2001: number 39).
36 Istanbul University Library ms. A6755; Dodds (1992: number 75).
37 Krger (1991); Safwat (2000: number 71). The text, a collection of prayers for Muhammad composed by the Moroccan
Sufi al-Jazuli, was popular from the Maghrib to south-east Asia. See Blair (2006: chapter 12).
38 Many examples of these flatweaves are illustrated in Fiske et al. (1980); Pickering et al. (1994).
39 See Turner (1996), Mali (3) Textiles.
40 Sauvaget (1949).
41 FK 36, Hofheinz (2003). The manuscript is illustrated on the projects page of the Saharan Studies Association: http://www.
saharanstudies.org/projects/.
42 Bivar (1968: plate III).
43 Ibn Battuta (1993: 4:951).
44 Ibn Battuta (1993: 4:957).
45 See, for example, the double-page illustration showing the presentation of gifts, notably books, by the Safavid ambassador
Shahquli to Selim II in 1567, from a copy of Loqmans Shahnama-yi selim khan done in 1581; Istanbul, Topkapi Palace
Library ms. A3595, fol. 53b54a; reproduced in Blair & Bloom (1994: figure 308).
46 The Fondo Kati Library, available at http://www.saharanstudies.org/projects/kati/.
47 See, for example, a small standard Ottoman copy of the Quran that was presented to Abd al-Kader by his father when
he had returned from the pilgrimage in 1827; Paris, BN ms. 7252; Guesdon & Vernay-Nouri (2001: number 1);
Droche (2004: figure 3).
48 Blair (2006: chapter 9).
49 Brockett (1987: 48).
50 Spectrographic analysis showed, for example, that a Quran codex copied in the Maghrib in the thirteenth or fourteenth
century (BN, ms. 6935; Droche [1985: number 302]) had diacritical marks done in blue made from azurite, but marginal
decoration in blue from the more expensive lapis (Droche 2000: 152153).
51 On the use of paper cartoons and the different types of designs, see Bloom (2001).
REFERENCES
Abbott N (1949) Maghribi Koran manuscripts of the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries. American Journal of Semitic
Languages and Literatures 55(1): 6165
Alarcn y Santn MA & Garca de Linares R (1940) Los documentos arabes diplomticos del archivo de la corona de Aragn.
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
Porter V & Barakat HN (2004) Mightier than the sword: Arabic script: Beauty and meaning. Contributions by C Bresc. Kuala
Lumpur: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Quaritch Catalogue (1995) The Quran and calligraphy: A selection of fine manuscript material. Bernard Quaritch Catalogue
1213. London: Bernard Quaritch
Safadi YH (1978) Islamic calligraphy. Boulder, CO: Shambala
Safwat NF (2000) Golden pages: Qurans and other manuscripts from the collection of Ghassan I Shaker. Oxford: Oxford
University Press for Azimuth Editions
Sauvaget J (1949) Les pitaphes royales de Gao. Al-Andalus 14: 123141
Turner J (Ed.) (1996) The dictionary of art. London: Macmillan Publishers
Valls i Subir O (1978) The history of paper in Spain (XXIV centuries). Madrid: Empresa Nacional de Celulosas SA
Walz T (1988) The paper trade of Egypt and the Sudan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In MW Daly (Ed.)
Modernization in the Sudan. New York: Lilian Berber Press
Werner L (2003) Mauritanias manuscripts. Saudi Aramco World 54(6): 216
In this chapter I will argue that Ajayi was not quite correct, but neither was Nkrumah.
Fourah Bay College was not the oldest institution of higher learning in West Africa.
However, Nkrumah was also not quite right in suggesting that the Sankore Mosque and
similar institutions in towns such as Timbuktu and Walata were African while al-Azhar
was not. Nor do these West African institutions resemble the original meaning of the
Opposite: Sankore Mosque,
Latin word universitas, which means corporation. The scholars of Timbuktu, like those
centre of higher learning in
in many other West African towns, did achieve a high level of Islamic scholarship by Timbuktu from the sixteenth
the sixteenth century, the point at which they began to produce their own scholarly to the eighteenth century.
University of Ghana have uncovered so much more of the African past and rendered
multi-ethnic and multiracial.
colonial versions of African history obsolete now it is time to replace the flattering but
misleading caricature of Muslim education in late medieval and early modern West Africa.
Many of the medieval European universities were similar to the earlier monastic
schools, as they were created and controlled by the Catholic Church, and are
sometimes called cathedral schools. The University of Bologna, founded in 1088, was
an exception as it was primarily secular. But even the curricula of the cathedral schools
were generally secular, specialising in law and medicine. These early European univer-
sities were called universitas because they started as small corporations of students or
teachers. When the Church and the various states recognised these corporations, they
regulated them and granted them privileges. The Church granted the privilege of
teaching, which had previously been reserved, and the states granted the teachers and
students exemptions from financial and military services.3 By contrast, higher
education in medieval and early modern West Africa was always explicitly religious,
though religious scholars and teachers had never been subject to higher Islamic
authority. There was never an Islamic counterpart of the Catholic Church. Nor did
students and teachers in towns such as Timbuktu and Walata form corporations in the
European sense. The state of Songhay, in the person of the ruler (askiya) and his
governors, did confer gifts and privileges on important scholars in Timbuktu and
elsewhere in the kingdom, but these were directed to individuals or families, not a
corporation of teachers or students. And many towns, such as Walata, stood outside the
borders of states for most of their history, and guarded their autonomy jealously.
I argue that although higher education in late medieval West Africa did not take place
in corporations as such, there was a corporate aspect to production and reproduction of
scholarship in the region. I will also argue that one should resist the temptation to
describe the scholarly institutions in Timbuktu and Walata as black, as they clearly
were multi-ethnic and multiracial, though they derived a substantial portion of their
names. These and other families coalesced into a group that became known as the
Lemhajib, and after a few generations of intermarriage within the group they effectively
became a great extended family.
Many of the early scholars of both towns were of sub-Saharan origin, although the
evidence for this is much stronger for Timbuktu than it is for Walata. That is because
although Timbuktu is not nearly as old as Walata, it developed a lively literary
production before Walata. However, as time passed, fewer and fewer scholarly families
in both towns claimed a West African ethnic identity, and some that did nevertheless
also claimed to be patrilineally Arab and therefore Bidan (white). By 1800 there were
no scholarly families left in Walata that claimed anything other than an Arab identity,
and the only people who considered themselves to be Sudan (black) were marginalised
people whom the elite Arabs defined as slaves or people of slave origin. In Timbuktu
the situation was similar but not nearly so stark.
Over the course of the last millennium Walata has been dominated by three successive
cultural groups. Accordingly, it has been known by three different names: Biru,
Iwalatan, and Walata, each name marking a period of a particular cultural dominance
in the town. In its earliest period the town was known by the Mande name Biru and
was located on the periphery of the Ghana Empire. Later it was drawn into the Mali
and then the Songhay Empires, and began also to be known by the Berber name
Iwalatan. By the end of the Songhay period in the late sixteenth century, the town
Walata was built on a slope descending from an escarpment varying in height from
about 60 to 80 feet above the valley. The oldest sections are the highest on the
escarpments slope, quite near the edge. As the town grew, it expanded down the slope.7
New houses and groups of houses were grafted onto the town so as to preserve its
enclosed outer wall, for defensive purposes. Today the general division of the town into
upper (vogani) and lower (tahtani) sections is a part of everyday life. For example, a
woman from the upper part of town might refer to a friend from the lower part as her
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tahtaniyya friend.8 The upper and lower sections of town also reflect the towns cultural
history in their place names. Upper sections of the town still bear place names from a
non-Arabic language that my informants described as Azayr, such as Gidinu,
Karavol, Kamrankani, Gumbusinya and Dnayda. Lower sections of town tend to bear
Arabic place names, such as Rahba Lahbib, Luqmayd, Rahba Il-bir Buya, Rahba Libel
and Rahba Lemlid.9 Walata is a labyrinth of narrow streets and small, closed-in spaces,
and in this respect it is a highly urban environment (similar to Timbuktu).
Timbuktu grew rapidly in the thirteenth or fourteenth century and eventually replaced
Walata as the premier trading town in the southern Sahara, drawing away many of its
traders and scholars.10 Despite this shift in trade, Walata survived and even served as a
haven for scholarly families of Timbuktu that opposed the expansion of the Songhay
Empire in 1465 and the invasion of a Maghribi expeditionary force in 1591. While
most of the families fleeing Timbuktu bore Berber or Mande names, some may have
been Songhay, or at least culturally Songhay. Leo Africanus, writing from the
Mediterranean in the sixteenth century, asserted that Songhay was spoken at Walata.11
Both floods of refugees temporarily revitalised Walata, and the refugees of 1591
probably helped Walata to start its own literary production. Azayr, a mixture of Mande
and Berber, was an important language in Walata at the end of the sixteenth century,
despite emigration from Timbuktu and the growing presence of Arabic speakers in the
southern desert. But the emigration of nomadic Arabs and later sedentarised Arabs
from northern Saharan oases began to transform Walatas Mande/Berber culture.12 By
the early seventeenth century individuals and families from the locally dominant
Hassani groups began to sedentarise in Walata and by the mid-seventeenth century
Timbuktu historians began to refer to the town as Walata, the Arabised form of
Iwalatan. Yet, of the three names, Biru was still the most widely used. 13
Walatas relative importance as a centre of trade within Takrur was apparently eclipsed
by the growth of Timbuktu in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Al-Sadi, writing
Although al-Sadi asserted that the most prominent citizens of Biru/Walata were origi-
nally from North Africa, and that Timbuktu derived its civilisation from the Maghrib,
other sources, and even al-Sadis own work, suggest that this was an exaggeration.15
Among the origins of Birus immigrants, al-Sadi mentioned only one place south of the
Sahara, Bitu.16 Nor did he mention in this passage the local and sub-Saharan scholars
of Biru. But this characterisation of Biru and Timbuktu is contradicted by al-Sadis own
detailed account of Songhay history. It is true that Islam spread from North Africa to
Biru and Timbuktu, and most of the early development of Maliki law, the dominant
school of Islamic law in West Africa, took place in north-west Africa. But al-Sadi and
other West African scholars recorded the development of West African scholarship,
which included many important sub-Saharan scholars. One of the earliest scholars in
Timbuktu was Muhammad al-Kabari, who came from a town in the Niger flood plain
near Dia. Additionally, the regional trade towns supported several large families that
enjoyed a scholarly reputation, among them the Gidadu, Gurdu and Baghayogho.17
Al-Sadi also stated that the transfer of citizens and commerce from Biru to Timbuktu
began in earnest at the end of the ninth century of the hijra (c.AD 1490) and was fairly
complete by the middle of the tenth century (c.AD 1540).18 The testimony of Leo
Africanus, who wrote in the early sixteenth century, corroborates al-Sadi:
When the people of Libya dominated the region [of Walata] they established the seat
of their royal government there, and in consequence many Barbaric merchants used
to come there. But since the reign of Sonni Ali, who was a powerful man, the
merchants have gradually abandoned Gualata [Walata] and gone to Tombutto
[Timbuktu] and Gago [Gao], hence the chief of Gualata has become poor and
powerless. The people of this country speak a language called Songai. These men are
to extend their families trade network. This economic dynamism, along with regional
political instability, probably created many periods of decline and growth over the last
800 years. The scholarly families of Timbuktu had come from various towns throughout
the region in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Among the many Biru families
that moved to Timbuktu during the fifteenth century was that of a scholar known as al-
Hajj who became qadi and who came to Timbuktu in about 1430. Both he and his
brother had moved to Timbuktu from Biru. Several of al-Hajjs descendants were
prominent Timbuktu judges and scholars.20
Emigration did not always flow from Biru to Timbuktu. Scholars living in Timbuktu fled
in numbers to Biru (or Walata) on at least two occasions. The first came in 1468 soon
after Sonni Ali took power in Timbuktu and came into conflict with several groups,
including the scholars. According to the account provided by al-Sadi, prominent
members of two scholarly families fled from Timbuktu to Biru at this time. These were
the families of Muhammad Aqit and Andag Muhammad, which were connected by
marriage ties. The scholar Umar b. Muhammad Aqit left with three sons, all of whom
became scholars. Two years after this first episode another group of scholarly families
abandoned Timbuktu for Biru, but many of these people were tracked down and killed
by Sonni Alis army before they could reach Biru.21
The second occasion came in 1591 when the Songhay Kingdom was invaded by the
Maghribi expeditionary force. The scholars who fled to Biru after the Maghribi
invasion were particularly important and their presence is recalled in biographical
dictionaries and chronicles produced in the nineteenth century. Most of the scholarly
families that emigrated from Timbuktu to Biru probably did not consider themselves to
be Songhay, but they undoubtedly took Songhay culture with them. The emigrant
families whose names are known seem by their names to be Berber and Mande.
Prominent among them was Ali Sila, whose ancestors had migrated from Biru to
Timbuktu in the fifteenth century. Ali Sila became a prominent judge in Walata and
The arrival of Timbuktu scholars in Walata in 1468 and 1591 and the corresponding
improvements in trade due to political problems in Timbuktu helped bring Biru
(Walata) into its period of full literary production, and sped its transformation into
Walata. The earliest known documents from Walata date to the first quarter of the
seventeenth century. The scholar who produced the oldest surviving Walati documents
was Anda Abd Allah (d.1628), the nephew of Abd Allah al-Mahjub, the eponymous
ancestor of the Lemhajib. Further, the two known chronicles of Walati history begin
their accounts with the events of the Moroccan invasion. Indeed, Ahmad Babas
biographical dictionary, Nayl al-ibtihaj, completed in 1596, did not list a single scholar
identifiable as a Walati. Ahmad Baba gave none of the scholars in his study a Walati
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nisba, although he gave one a Tizakhti nisba. Neither did any of the scholars have a Biri
nisba or the nisba of an identifiable Biru/Walata family.23
One of the most important sources on the origins of the Lemhajib is a mysterious poem
that was probably written in about 1800. According to al-Daysafis poem, the Lemhajib
consisted of at least three families or patrilineages among which was divided the
inherited offices of qadi and imam. The first was the Bani (or Banu) al-Faqih Uthman;
the second was identified only as the family of the qadi Ali b. Abd Allah; and the third
family, from which the imam was chosen, was not identified at all. However, a preface,
which was not written by al-Daysafi and may be much more recent, supplements the
information presented in the poem. The preface translated below identifies the family
of imams with the lineage of Andag Muhammad al-Kabir, who was a famous late
sixteenth-century refugee from Timbuktu. It also adds the name Muhammad to the
lineage of Ali b. Abd Allah. Other versions of the preface, which are not translated
below, describe the lineage of Ali b. Abd Allah as the Awlad Nda Ali, which is a
name found in other accounts of the Lemhajibs origins.24
In the name of God, the Merciful and Beneficent, the desire of their lords. Peace be on
the noble Prophet and on his family and his companions. And from the best of what is
said in praise, Muhammad b. Muslim al-Daysafi al-Imyari discussed the merit of Bani
[the families of] al-Faqih Uthman b. Muhammad al-Ghayth b. Muhammad al-Fath
b. Yahya al-Kamil, and the family of the qadi Muhammad b. Ali b. Abd Allah, and the
family of the imam Andag Muhammad al-Kabir the Mahjubi imam, who came to them
visiting from Timbuktu, may God bless us through them and their progeny. Amen.
And do not forget the qadi of the walled town, the ancestor of its Qadis,
Ali b. Abd Allah. What a splendid honored brother,
He was noble and descended from a noble and illustrious people,
companion of the friend of God, our lord Khadir.
He was of the progeny of the son of Khawla, Muhammad,
who was famous for his gentleness and mildness,
Descendant of the nephew of the Prophet and his executor Ali,
father of the two grandsons, possessors of knowledge and diffusion.
And their leader, who led the group in virtue, just as he led them in purity of origin.
Imam selected from among the pure imams, the imams selected [?] him [?] greatly.26
Indeed the Chosen [the Prophet] was the most just judge of their ancestors,
the first among the Arabs.
Said son of the offspring of al-[As], the best of his companions,
may Gods peace be on him to the end of time.27
And from all of them came powerful men, just as they are the source
of power and victory.
The most significant aspect of this poem is the way it conceptualises the formation of
the Lemhajib tribe or alliance as forged from three different clans or sets of families.
But before dealing with the conceptual aspects of the poem, the more material details
need to be examined. Information about the Lemhajib drawn from al-Bartaylis biogra-
phical dictionary and the Walati chronicles provide some solid clues as to the identities
of the three sets of families described in al-Daysafis poem and the preface. The identi-
fication of the Faqih Uthman and Ali b. Abd Allah is an important element in the
analysis of al-Daysafis poem, because the families or lineages that derived their
identities from them, the Bani al-Faqih Uthman and the Awlad Nda Ali, clearly pre-
dated the formation of the Lemhajib. Similarly important, but somewhat easier, is the
identification of Andag Muhammad al-Kabir, who is described as the ancestor of the
family of the imams in the preface of al-Daysafis poem, though not in the poem itself.
Andag Muhammad al-Kabir (the Elder) was the qadi of Timbuktu in the mid-fifteenth
century, and several of his descendants took refuge in Walata from the oppression of
Sonni Ali in 1468, and it is quite likely that some did again after the Moroccan
expeditions conquest of Timbuktu in 1591. The Faqih Uthman described in the poem
seems to refer to a distant ancestor of the families that later formed the Lemhajib,
though this cannot be clearly determined from the poem or any available pre-
twentieth-century evidence. Faqih Uthman was the grandson of Yahya al-Kamil, the
Evidence from the various Walati sources regarding the Lemhajib is only sufficient to
suggest a very general period for the composition of al-Daysafis poem. On first examination
it seems that the poem was written no later than the middle of the seventeenth century,
because the families he identified as controlling the offices of qadi and imam lost those
offices to the families who descended from Faqih Uthman in about 1650 or shortly there-
after.33 But such a date is at variance with the evidence from the Tarikh al-Takrur and
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the Fath al-shakur, which suggests that the descendants of Abd Allah al-Mahjub had
only produced a few families by 1650, and that the Mahjubi nisba probably did not
begin to represent a politically significant corporate identity until the late seventeenth
or early eighteenth century. What is more, the poem marginalises the families it
describes as controlling the offices of the qadi and imam much more than one would
expect if those families still controlled those offices. No member of the family of the
imam is even named in the poem. The preface corrects this deficiency, but cannot
compensate for the fact that most of the poem is devoted to the families claiming
descent from Faqih Uthman. All these factors suggest that the poem was actually
written after the control of the offices of qadi and imam had passed to the families of the
Bani al-Faqih Uthman. The timing of the poems composition is significant because it
is suggestive of its function. If the poem was produced substantially after the formation
of the Mahjubi alliance (as it purports), then it would have served as a rationalisation
and a reinforcement of a political process, but if it was written during the process it
would constitute a mechanism for social and political change.
In addition to the strong evidence that al-Daysafis poem was not written before 1650,
there are good reasons to suspect that it was written after 1700. The whole body of
written evidence from Walata and the region strongly suggests that the Lemhajib did
not become an important corporate identity before 1700. The earliest evidence for this
assertion comes from the regional literature produced in the seventeenth century.
Ahmad Babas biographical dictionary Nayl al-ibtihaj, which he completed in 1596, did
not include a single scholar identified by the Mahjubi nisba among its 830 biographies.
Nor was the nisba mentioned in any of the three main chronicles produced in
Timbuktu: al-Sadis Tarikh al-Sudan (c.1655), al-Katis Tarikh al-fattash (c.1665), and
the anonymous Tadhkirat al-nisiyan (c.1751). Early nineteenth-century sources
describing the descendants of Abd Allah al-Mahjub also suggest that the Lemhajib was
in the early stage of formation in 1650. While no source provides dates for the life or
In 1641 the qadi of Walata, Sidi Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Ali Sila, died and was
eventually replaced by Ahmad al-Wali, a descendant of Faqih Uthman and al-Mahjub.
Sidi Muhammad was the last qadi from a group of families that had previously
dominated the qadiship, and Ahmad al-Wali was the first imam and qadi from among
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the Lemhajib. When Ahmad al-Wali died in 1683 he was replaced by Abd Allah b.
Abu Bakr, a paternal cousin. At this point the Sidi Ahmad branch of the Bani al-Faqih
Uthman seems to have been subordinate to the descendants of al-Mahjub, who
controlled the offices of qadi and imam. After the death of Abd Allah b. Abu Bakr, the
qadiship and imamship was split between two men, though both were descendants of
al-Mahjub. But when this third Mahjubi imam died in 1715, the office of imam passed
to a descendant of the Sidi Ahmad branch for the first time, and there it stayed for the
next 150 years. The office of qadi remained under the control of the descendants of al-
Mahjub, and thus the two branches of the Bani al-Faqih Uthman shared power on a
more or less equal basis. It is unlikely that the Sidi Ahmad branch became assimilated
into the broader Mahjubi identity before this power-sharing arrangement had become
institutionalised.34 When the first imam from the Sidi Ahmad branch died in 1732 he
was replaced by a paternal cousin, so at this point the arrangement between the two
branches of the Bani al-Faqih Uthman was becoming secure.35
Al-Mahjub and Sidi Ahmad were full brothers (shaqiqan), and they are the ones
from whom branched the Lemhajib. Their mother was the daughter of Baba Misir
Biru, of the progeny of the Wali Allah [friend of God], Anda Ali, the ancestor of the
Ali al-Qadi [family of the qadi] of the progeny of Muhammad b. al-Hanifiyya, son of
our master Ali ibn Abi Talib. May God be pleased with him. Al-Mahjub and Sidi
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Ahmad were the sons of Muhammad al-Ghayth b. Muhammad al-Fath b. Abd Allah
al-Qutb b. Muhammad al-Faqih b. al-Faqih b. al-Faqih Uthman b. Muhammad b.
Yahya al-Kamil. Our great ancestor is the one who came to Walata with his son
Muhammad in the fifth century. Then his son Muhammad married the daughter of
the friend of God almighty, Anda Ali, the family of the qadi, which has completely
vanished away. They are the progeny of Muhammad b. al-Hanifiyya, son of our master
Ali b. Abi Talib. May God be pleased with him. She [the daughter of Anda Ali]
gave birth to al-Faqih Uthman and Anda Ali is his ancestor by his mother. And
Muhammad al-Ghayth is the father of al-Mahjub and Sidi Ahmad, and their mother
is the daughter of Baba Misir Biru of the progeny of Anda Ali also. As for our great
ancestor Yahya al-Kamil, he never mentioned his nasab [origins]Our great
ancestor Yahya al-Kamil was a contemporary of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani the
Sharif, and I think there was some relationship between them, but I do not know
what it was.37
This passage reveals that Talib Bubakar was well informed about the Lemhajibs matri-
filial kinship with some very old and powerful Walati families. It was important for him
to show the Lemhajibs matrilineal connection to Baba Misir Biru and Anda Ali
because they belonged to Walatas Ali al-Qadi, the family of the qadi. Several sources
suggest that it was from this group of families that the Lemhajib obtained the qadiship,
though they provide relatively little information about the Ali al-Qadi. One apparent
member was a Walati scholar named Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Ali Sila, whose
ancestors lived in Biru/Walata, then migrated to Timbuktu in the fifteenth century, and
finally returned to Walata in the seventeenth century. Muhammad, the grandson of
Ali Sila, was the earliest recorded qadi of Walata, and died in 1640. The Fath al-shakur
describes Ali Sila as a close associate of Umar al-Wali al-Mahjubi, who was the
grandson of Abd Allah al-Mahjub. Ali Sila was part of the family of Ali b. Abd Allah
(or Anda Ali), which al-Daysafi and Talib Bubakar described as dominating the office
The connection between the lineages of Anda Ali and al-Faqih Uthman is particu-
larly historic because the Anda Ali appear to have been Sonink. Elias Saad, a modern
historian, has argued that both Baba Misir Biru and Ali Sila were Sonink, or at least
descended from Sonink families. His assertion is supported by the Tarikh Walata-I,
which described the Walati scholar Sidi Muhammad b. al-Hajj Sila (d.172728) as
Sudani or black. Similarly, the Tarikh al-Sudan described the Songhay dynasty of Askiya
Muhammad as Silank.39 Talib Bubakars claim that the Anda Ali were descended
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from the Prophets cousin does not preclude them from being culturally Sonink.
It is not clear when the unification of the families of Anda Ali and al-Faqih Uthman
took place, but it is likely that the Anda Ali retained their separate identity for some
time after their political and social assimilation. Nevertheless, by the time Talib
Bubakar wrote the Minah, the Walati descendants of Ali Sila, Anda Ali, and Andag
Muhammad and the other families that became Mahjubi were no longer socially identi-
fiable, as they had been completely absorbed or assimilated into the Lemhajib. The
assimilation of the lineage of Ali Sila into the Lemhajib is particularly significant
because the families of Baba Misir Biru and Ali Sila were Sonink, or were of Sonink
origin. The assimilation and disappearance of these families provides an explanation for
the apparent disappearance of the original Mande inhabitants of Biru/Walata. They
were absorbed, through intermarriage, into the towns dominant Arab social groups.
make pottery.
9 Interview, several Lemhajib. Research notes available from author (pages 128, 131).
10 Ibn Khaldun (1981: 339). Ibn Khaldun stated that Arabs, apparently the Hassan, molested caravans between Tuwat and
Walatan [sic]. See also Levtzion (1994: 159).
11 Africanus (1956: 463464).
12 In the mid-nineteenth century, Heinrich Barth stated that Azayr was spoken at Walata, though he did not visit there. See
Barth (1965: 696).
13 Al-Sadi (1964). Compare index entries for Biru and Walata.
14 Al-Sadi (1964: 21; trans. 3637).
15 Elias Saad (1983: 3233), a modem historian of Timbuktu, suggested that al-Sadi did not intend the name Maghrib,
as it appears in this passage, to refer to north-west Africa, but rather to the lands west of Timbuktu, that is, Biru, Kumbi
and Tishit. However, the context of al-Sadis statement does not support this interpretation. After all, al-Sadis statement
on Timbuktu immediately followed his assertion that the most prominent citizens of Biru/Walata were originally from
North Africa. According to the Tarikh Tishit, the town was established in 1153. See Monteil (1939: 284).
16 Wilks (1982).
17 Saad (1983: 7, 243246).
18 Saad (1983: 22).
19 Africanus (1956: 463464).
20 Africanus (1956: 2728).
21 Al-Sadi (1964: 6567; trans. 105108).
22 Saad (1983: 130, 278). This is particularly significant for the history of the Lemhajib, who dominated Walata in the
nineteenth century. The pre-eminent Mahjubi scholar linked the earliest remembered Mahjubi patriarch to Baba Misir
Biru through marriage to his daughter. The family name of Ali Sila may have also been pronounced by some as Sili.
23 Baba (1989: 587).
24 See the preface of the more recent copy of al-Daysafis poem from the library of Bati Wuld Baba, which is translated from
Arabic to Spanish in Corral (2000: 225226).
25 Ancestors of Quraysh, the eponymous ancestor of the Prophets tribe or tribal confederation.
26 The translation of this line is very much in doubt.
27 This refers to Amr b. al-As, the conqueror of Egypt.
28 Fihr was supposed to be the ancestor of the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet Muhammad and Uqba ibn Nafi.
29 This is a clever play on words (al-alim al-Mahjub [the hidden knower] of ilm al-badr).
30 The use of the word white here probably is intended to symbolise purity or nobility.
31 There was a later Mahjubi scholar named Faqih Uthman, who died in 171516 and was the son of Umar al-Wali b.
Shaykh Muhammad Abd Allah. Faqih Uthman b. Umar al-Wali was a prominent patriarch of the Awlad al-Faqih Uthman.
Al-Bartayli introduced Uthman as Sidi in his biography, but he also called him a faqih. His biography is one of the
longest in the Fath al-shakur, and al-Bartayli praised his scholarship and his ability to intimidate bandits and those who
39 Ali Sila (or Sili) was the son of Baba Misir Birus daughter. For his biography see al-Bartayli (1981: 197). For the race
of Muhammad b. al-Hajj Sila see Tarikh Walata-I, 560. See the analysis of Saad (1983: 110, and fn. 93 & 94 on 278).
For the Sila or Silank origins of Askiya Dawud, see Hunwick (1999: 102, 112).
REFERENCES
Africanus L (Jean-Leon lAfricain) (1956) Description de lAfrique. Translated by A Epaulard. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve
Ajayi JF (1967) The narrative of Samuel Ajaya Crowther, In P Curtin (Ed.) Africa remembered. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press
Baba A (1989) Nayl al-ibtihaj bi tatriz al-dibaj. Tarabulus, Libya: al-Jamahiriyah al-Arabiyah al-Libiyah al-Shabiyah al-
Ishtirakiyah al-Uzma
al-Bartayli TM (1981) Fath al-Shakur. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb
Barth H (1965) Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa in the years 18491855 (Vol. 3). London: F. Cass
Bathily A (1975) A discussion of the traditions of Wagadu with some reference to ancient Ghana. Bull. de 1IFAN 28 sr. B1: 16
Corral JJ (2000) Ciudades de las caravanas: itinerarios de arquitectura antigua en Mauritania, 19781981. Granada:
Legado Andalusi
Hunwick JO (1985) Shari a in Songhay: The replies of al-Maghili to the questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad. Edited
and translated with an introduction and commentary by JO Hunwick. London/New York: Published for the British Academy
by Oxford University Press
Hunwick J (trans.) (1999) Tarikh al-Sudan. In Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Leiden: EJ Brill
Ibn Khaldun (1981) Kitab al-ibar. In Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history. Translated by JFP Hopkins;
edited and annotated by N Levtzion & JF Hopkins. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press
Levtzion N (1994) Islam in West Africa: Religion, society and politics to 1800. Aldershot: Variorum
Lucas J (1931) Considerations sur lethnique maure et en particulier sur une race ancienne: Les Bafours. Journal des
Africanistes 1(2): 152194
Meuni D (1961) Cits anciennes de Mauritanie, provinces du Tagannt et du Hodh. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck
Modat C (1919) Les populations primitives de lAdrar Mauritanien. BCEHS 4: 372391
Monteil V (1939) Chroniques de Tichit. Bulletin de lInstitute Fondamental dAfrique Noire I: 284
Nkrumah K (1967) Ghanas cultural history. Prsence Africaine 13/14: 78
Saad E (1983) A social history of Timbuktu. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press
al-Sadi (1964) Tarikh al-Sudan (Texte arabe dit et traduit par O Houdas, avec la collaboration de E Benoist). Paris: Adrien-
Maisonneuve
Trimingham S (1975) A history of Islam in West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Wilks I (1982) Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I. The matter of Bitu. The Journal of
African History 23(3): 344349
part ii
literature as a
source of history
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94
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 7
The Timbuktu works which share tarikh properties are the Tarikh al-Sudan (Chronicle
of the Sudan)1 of al-Sadi (completed in 1653 but updated in 1656); the Tarikh al-fattash
(Chronicle of the Researcher)2 of Ibn al-Mukhtar (completed in 1664 or soon after);
and the anonymous, so-called Notice historique3 (which began to be written some time
between 1657 and 1669). Another work that appears to have belonged to the same
genre, the Durar al-hisan fi akhbar bad muluk al-Sudan (Pearls of Beauties Concerning
What is Related About Some Kings of the Sudan), by Baba Goro, has been lost. It may
have been written earlier than the others, still in the first half of the seventeenth
century, though it is also possible it was composed after the Tarikh al-Sudan, which fails
to mention it (by contrast, the Tarikh al-fattash quotes from the Durar al-hisan).4
Those who practised the tarikh genre aimed at producing a unified narrative of various
areas of the Sahel (Sahil) region a narrative ranging from the earliest centuries to the
time of the writers. At the present state of knowledge, it seems that this was the first
time their kind of overarching narrative was attempted in the region. Indeed, except
for the introduction and some other passages in the Tarikh al-fattash, all of which are
Opposite: Examples of
believed to be nineteenth-century forgeries,5 there is so far no evidence suggesting that inscriptions at an epigraphic
historical syntheses comparable to the extant tarikh works in scope, or in intellectual site north of Timbuktu.
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 95
and ideological orientation, had existed before them. No work of this kind, dated from
before the seventeenth century, has been found among the manuscripts rediscovered in
Timbuktu in recent years.6
Actually, the tarikh writers themselves underline this difference. They did draw on
inherited knowledge. And they incorporated in their texts accounts provided by oral
traditionists, and quoted from earlier Timbuktu writings. One of them (the author of
the Tarikh al-Sudan) also mentions oral discussions of historical topics held by their own
Timbuktu-elite ancestors. However, the two tarikh writers whose original prefaces
survive (the authors of the Tarikh al-Sudan and the Notice historique) present their works
as new syntheses and new investigations of the discrete and fragmentary strands of
tradition available to them, not as a simple prolongation of integrated visions of the
past already in existence. The Notice historique states that the available historical
records were inadequate with regard to even the most recent of the Songhay dynasties,
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the Askiya dynasty. The Tarikh al-Sudan calls attention to issues not covered by the
existing accounts of the origins of the Zuwa dynasty. The Tarikh al-fattash explicitly
declares that no tarikh whatsoever was available about the Kayamagha dynasty of
medieval Ghana.7
However, despite the statements to the contrary by the tarikh writers, we modern historians
have insisted on assuming those writers had at their disposal a wealth of reliable historical
records transmitted from generation to generation and reaching back several centuries.
The accumulated weight of this supposed heritage is deemed to be the force that made
those writers write no other possible spur to their endeavours has been considered.
Therefore the chroniclers are misrepresented as more or less passive conduits of
tradition, while in fact they were intellectual innovators and politico-ideological doers.
The tarikh writing done in the seventeenth century was a literary genre that had no
precedent and no succession in Timbuktu. Sadly, the tarikh genre was short-lived.
The post-tarikh period in Timbuktu yielded works like the anonymous Tadhkirat al-
nisiyan fi akhbar muluk as-Sudan (Reminder for Forgetfulness Regarding What is Related
About the Rulers of the Sudan),8 completed in 1751 and essentially a biographical
dictionary of Pasha rulers; or the (also anonymous and still unpublished) Diwan al-
muluk fi salatin al-Sudan (Royal Records of the Rulers of the Sudan),9 also a history of
the Pashalik during most of the period covered by the Tadhkirat al-nisiyan; or yet the
Dhikr al-wafayat wa-ma hadath min al-umur al-izam (Recollection of Deaths and [Other]
or limit for its possible starting point in time. specificities of the tarikh genre and
which unmistakably provides this
But the tarikh works were also implicitly centred on a novel political project, which
genre with a terminus a quo, or limit
expressed a will to power. Their distinctive characteristics were clearly geared to this
for its possible starting point in time.
project, which is the only thing capable of explaining oddities in the tarikh texts that
otherwise would remain impossible to understand.11 It was political aspirations that set
the new genre in motion, not the accumulated weight of earlier manuscripts from
which tarikh historical writing actually differs in kind.
That political project would have been not only unnecessary, but in fact unthinkable,
in earlier centuries and was still unthinkable just a few decades before the tarikh works
were composed. It only became possible under the conditions obtaining after the
Moroccan invasion. It would have been nonsensical at any earlier stage. Moreover, it
only became imaginable after a high degree of integration with local society had been
achieved by the Arma (the descendants of the Maghribians, Spaniards and Portuguese,
brought into the region by the Moroccan invasion and its aftermath).12
It was a project of reconciliation between three elites, aimed at a closer, less unequal
political integration of each of them with the others.13 These three elites were the
Arma military and political class themselves (who needed definitively to legitimise
their power), the Askiya lineages (now deprived by the Moroccan invasion of
independent sovereign power over the region, but still playing significant political roles
in it) and the urban patriciate of Timbuktu and Jenne (to which the tarikh writers
belonged, and which had suffered much from the invasion but still retained consider-
able influence and literate skills useful to the Arma administration). Modern historians
have long overlooked this project of a new social pact and its pertinence to the
emergence of the tarikh genre.14
Unfortunately, not long after the tarikh works were produced, the politically and
conceptually audacious project that inspired them became unfeasible, given increasing
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 97
New textual genres are directly or factionalism among the Arma and among the Askiya lineages as well, to which was
indirectly sponsored into existence added increasing political pressure from Tuareg confederations. The tarikh genre
by new audiences equipped with perished together with that project, without literary posterity.
new sensibilities, expectations and
New textual genres are directly or indirectly sponsored into existence by new audiences
worldly interests, though these new
equipped with new sensibilities, expectations and worldly interests, though these new
audiences themselves are also
audiences themselves are also constituted and shaped by the new genres that address
constituted and shaped by the new
them. The process is reciprocal. Hence, if audiences expectations radically change, the
genres that address them. The
vitality of the textual genre they sponsored may be fatally undermined. Tarikh writing
process is reciprocal. Hence, if
went out in Timbuktu when tarikh audiences among the Arma, the Askiya lineages and
audiences expectations radically
the Timbuktu patricians could no longer treat the tarikh texts as statements of a unique
change, the vitality of the textual
kind, and as a feasible political blueprint, and began to treat them instead as just one
genre they sponsored may be fatally
type of historical record among others.
undermined. Tarikh writing went out
in Timbuktu when tarikh audiences It is then the notion of genre that gives us the key to what happened. This notion
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among the Arma, the Askiya lineages allows us to organise textual traditions into categories of works defined by common
and the Timbuktu patricians could properties as to their form, subject matter and strategies for producing meaning. This
no longer treat the tarikh texts as notion is an essential critical tool, without which proper literary history is impossible.
statements of a unique kind, and as Yet it has not been adequately applied to the Timbuktu tarikh works.
a feasible political blueprint, and
Within any given literary tradition, genres have a beginning in time and may come to
began to treat them instead as
an end, too. The relationship of a new genre to the tradition within which it emerges
just one type of historical record
is one of rupture, not continuity and accumulation. This is what we have for long failed
among others.
to consider in our studies of the Timbuktu tarikh genre (and when I say we, I do include
myself in it).
We, and in particular historians, have emphasised continuity between this seven-
teenth-century genre and what was written in Timbuktu before and after. We have
done so in order to bolster our belief that the tarikh genre merely reproduced and
updated old historical records (and an old interest in the construction of wide historical
panoramas and continuous historical narratives) going back over the centuries, and
transmitted from generation to generation. It has been in our corporate professional
interest, as modern historians, to postulate such continuity, because it supposedly
permits us to pronounce authoritatively on the past of the Sahel by quoting the tarikh
writers reconstructions of history, which we deem inherited from eyewitnesses
positioned in earlier eras all the way back almost to time immemorial.
Hence, to reinforce our own modern-historian authority, we have deprived the tarikh
writers of their historian status. We have reduced them to informants and providers of
supposedly raw evidence. But, in fact, they were not mere informants, but historians like
ourselves, and they had their own difficulties in retrieving evidence and reconstructing
the past from the point of view of their novel intellectual and political stance the
kind of difficulties modern historians are well acquainted with.
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 99
To reinforce our own modern- It is then from the notion of literary and political ruptures, and of paradigm shifts,
historian authority, modern scholars rather than from the notion of continuity, that our analysis must proceed. We must pay
have deprived the tarikh writers of special attention to the properties that made the tarikh genre different from other
their status as historians. They have genres which preceded and followed it, and which also recorded historical events.
been reduced to informants and
One of those properties is what we may call the plenitude effect imparted by the tarikh
providers of supposedly raw
works to their accounts of dynastic history in the Sahel, all of which culminate in the
evidence. But, in fact, they were not
history of the Askiya dynasty. The purpose of this was to reinforce the symbolic capital
mere informants, but historians like
of the Askiya lineages who figured among the writers patrons, and to give those
ourselves, and they had their own
lineages odds in the game of reformed political alliances envisaged by the writers. In
difficulties in retrieving evidence
practice, it meant constructing narratives of the past that were apparently free of gaps,
and reconstructing the past from
that is, deploying writing strategies that prevented narrative breaks where evidence was
the point of view of their novel
missing. Partly, this plenitude effect was achieved by borrowing stories and characters
intellectual and political stance
from Tuareg folklore, and making them pass for historical characters. From Aligurran
the kind of difficulties modern
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or Arigullan, a hero of Tuareg lore, the Timbuktu chroniclers fashioned the character
historians are well acquainted with.
they call Ali Kulun or Ali Golom, the supposed founder of the Sii or Sonni dynasty
of Songhay; and stories associated with the same Tuareg character underlie part of the
account of the foundation of the Askiya dynasty provided by the Tarikh al-Sudan.15
Most of our modern historical reconstructions remain largely based on what the tarikh
writers said. Given the deceptive fullness of their narratives, we modern historians have
so far experienced difficulty in finding, in our own accounts, space to accommodate
available evidence which contradicts tarikh statements, or to which tarikh writers simply
did not have access. Yet such evidence exists, and offers support to a new critical
approach to the work of the seventeenth-century Timbuktu historians.16
I shall now show some of this evidence, which in this particular case comes from Arabic
epigraphy rather than from Tuareg oral tradition. The evidence originates in Gao and
Bentiya, two of the most important medieval epigraphic sites in the territory of the
Republic of Mali (see Figure 7.1 on page 99). It consists of one inscription from the Jira
Kanje Cemetery (by the side of the mosque known as Askiya Mosque) in Old Gao, and
two from Bentiyas Larger Cemetery. These three inscriptions prove the unreliability of
fundamental aspects of the historical reconstructions provided by the seventeenth-
century Timbuktu chroniclers, and since adopted by most modern historians.
However, as will be seen in the conclusion of this chapter, this should not lead to the
dismissal of the Timbuktu chronicles as historical documents. Rather, what is needed is
a new mode of investigation and historical appreciation of their texts.
Epigraphic evidence for a new critique of the tarikh accounts from left to right:
Figure 7.2 Photo of De Giron-
The first inscription (see Figures 7.2, 7.3, 7.4) survives only in the form of an estampage courts estampage 306, done on
(paper-squeeze impression) made in Gao at Jira Kanje in 1912, by the French explorer inscription 62, about the son of
an askiya, dated 1234, Gao.
Georges-Reynard de Gironcourt. This estampage is now kept in the library of the
Institut de France in Paris. The inscription bears the number 62 in the epigraphic Figure 7.3 Moraes Fariass line
corpus published in 2003.17 Another inscription (number 63), almost certainly from the drawing of De Gironcourts
same cemetery, also contains the title Askiya, but its date is no longer readable. estampage 306.
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 101
The date of death belongs to the month of Rabi the Last (the fourth month) of the
year 631 of the Islamic calendar, that is, to the period extending between 4 January and
1 February 1234. It is still possible to read this partly erased chronological reference
thanks to the diacritical points that have survived.
It shows that the title Askiya was in use in Gao no less than 259 years before 1493 (the
year of its creation according to the Tarikh al-Sudan), and 246 years before the decade
beginning in 1480 (from which the Tarikh al-fattash appears to date its use). In fact, the
title appears to have had a much longer and more complicated history in Gao than the
Timbuktu chroniclers ever knew.18
The second inscription (see Figures 7.5, 7.6, 7.7) bears the number 226 in the published
corpus. It has disappeared from the Bentiya sites and is only known through a De
Gironcourt estampage (799) preserved in the Institut de France.19
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The Tarikh al-Sudan describes the Kukyia area, which corresponds to the Bentiya sites,
as a centre of undiluted paganism from which Pharaoh had recruited sorcerers against
Prophet Musa (Moses).20 Yet the vast Muslim necropolises at Bentiya prove the presence
there of a sizeable Muslim community, probably composed of traders, between 1272 and
1489. Actually, the support of this community probably helps to explain the Sonni
dynastys successful bid for power in the fifteenth century.21 Probably, the office of khatib
was associated in the Kukyia/Bentiya area not only with the preaching of the khutba or
Friday sermon, but also with important political functions. It is the only Islamic office
known to have existed in Gao under Sonni Ali Beeri, the most powerful of the Sonni
rulers, who reigned from 146465 to 1492. Under the Askiya dynasty, Gaos khatib also
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The third inscription (see Figures 7.8, 7.9, 7.10) bears the number 234 in the published
corpus.23 It is still in situ at Bentiyas Larger Cemetery. Only part of its text is still readable.
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 103
The date of death almost certainly belongs to the year 824 of the Islamic calendar, that
is, AD 1421.
Conclusion
The Tarikh al-Sudan of al-Sadi, the Tarikh al-fattash of Ibn al-Mukhtar and the
anonymous Notice historique aimed at writing up the Sahel of West Africa as a vast
geopolitical entity defined by the notion of imperial kingship. It is from them that we
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have inherited the idea of three great empires (Ghana, Mali and Songhay) succeeding
one another in West Africa.
In the texts of the Timbuktu chroniclers, that imperial tradition culminates in the
Askiya rulers of Songhay, precisely the dynasty that had lost its political independence
at the hands of the invaders who came from Morocco in the apocalyptic year of 1591.
Hence the imperial rank of the Askiya needed to be given afresh the highest possible
legitimacy.
It is precisely when the Askiya princes had become subordinate to the Arma that the
chroniclers rebuilt, and reinforced, the overthrown dynastys claim to caliphal status.
(Significantly, Ahmad Baba, the most famous Timbuktu writer of the preceding genera-
tion, had classified the Askiya state as a mere sultanate, not a caliphate.)24
At the same time, the meaning of the expression bilad al-sudan (land of the black
peoples) was continuing to evolve within the tarikh genre. As shown by Hunwick, in
the Tarikh al-Sudan, while al-Sadi sometimes uses the word Sudan with reference to the
inhabitants of the region, at other times he uses it in a geopolitical sense to mean the
Middle Niger land area.25 Thus the term bilad al-sudan or ard al-sudan, which had begun
its career as an instrument of otherisation applied from outside the region, was now
being taken over by Sudanese insiders and made into a badge of greatness.
The image of the black West African caliphate was meant to rival the caliphal claims
put forward from North Africa by Moroccos Sadi dynasty. However, in the immediate
context of the Middle Niger region, the function of that image was to persuade the
Arma to accept a new social and political pact with the pre-invasion Songhay elites. It
was not meant to challenge Arma political leadership.
Two pioneers, DT Niane and Olivier de Sardan, initiated the study of the ideological
background of the Timbuktu chronicles.26 Both these scholars saw the chronicles as
But, in fact, one novelty of the tarikh genre was its implicit formulation of a blueprint
for the future which came to terms with the post-invasion political realities, and hence
sought a stable reconciliation with the Arma. The Timbuktu chronicles were far from
being a mere exercise in nostalgia. Also, the chroniclers took for granted that slaves
and other traditionally subordinate groups should be kept at the lower end of the social
hierarchy this was not the main point of their writing. Rather, their specific aim was
a new alliance of elites.
It was this particular political aim that led the tarikh writers to engineer a continuous
narrative of the regions history, taking in even its remotest periods. Thus, on the same
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page, al-Sadi could complain about lack of historical evidence on the Zuwa dynasty, yet
claim to provide information about it of which those in the know were well aware.27
But, no matter how misleading its accounts of the earliest eras can be, the Timbuktu
tarikh genre remains a precious source of information about periods chronologically
closer to the chroniclers. And, above all, the three great chronicles are invaluable for
the light they throw on social relations and politico-ideological issues at the time of
their writing.
It must be clear by now that the purpose of this chapter is not to dismiss the Timbuktu
tarikh texts as historical sources. Rather, the aim is to grasp the tarikh writers not as
antiquaries, but as senior colleagues in the joint task of producing historical knowledge,
and as persons fully engaged in the issues of their own time. Indeed they were highly
active historical characters themselves. Their writing was an intervention in their own
contemporary history.
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 105
NOTES
1 Al-Sadi (1964); see also the English translation of parts of the text by Hunwick (1999: 1270); and the excerpts from
the work made by the German explorer Heinrich Barth and published by Ralfs (1855).
2 Ibn al-Mukhtar (1964).
3 Anon. A (1964).
4 See Moraes Farias (2003: Chapter 2: 121, 136, 143) these are references to the numbered paragraphs in Part I and
Part II of the book, which have page numbers in Roman numerals.
5 On these forgeries, see Levtzion (1971: 574, 576, 592593).
6 On these rediscoveries, see Haidara (1997, 1999); Hofheinz (2004); and some of the chapters published in this book.
7 See al-Sadi (1964: text 12, 5, trans. 23, 8); Hunwick trans. (1999: 12, 6); Anon. A (1964: 327329); Ibn al-Mukhtar
(1964: text 42, trans. 7980).
8 Anon. B (1966).
9 See Hunwick (1992b: 179).
10 See Abitbol (1982).
11 See Moraes Farias (2003: Chapter 2: 117120).
12 See Hodgkin (1987).
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REFERENCES
Abitbol M (Ed. and trans.) (1982) Tombouctou au milieu du xviiie sicle daprs la chronique de Mawlay al-Qasim. Paris:
GP Maisonneuve et Larose
Anon. A (1964) Untitled text known as Notice historique. Partial French translation by O Houdas & M Delafosse. Published
as the Deuxime appendice to Ibn al-Mukhtar, Tarikh al-fattash, 326341
Anon. B (1966) Tedzkiret en-Nisian. Edited and translated into French by O Houdas. Paris: Librairie dAmrique et dOrient
Adrien-Maisonneuve
Haidara ID (1997) LEspagne musulmane et lAfrique subsaharienne. Bamako: Editions Donniya
Haidara ID (1999) Les Juifs Tombouctou. Bamako: Editions Donniya
al-Harraq F & Hunwick JO (Eds and trans) (2000) Ahmad Babas replies on slavery. Rabat: Universit Muhammad V, Institute
of African Studies
Hodgkin E (1987) Social and political relations on the Niger Bend in the seventeenth century. PhD thesis, University of
Birmingham, Centre of West African Studies
Moraes Farias PF (1993b) Text as landscape: Reappropriations of medieval inscriptions in the 17th and late 20th centuries
(Essuk, Mali). In O Hulec & M Mendel (Eds) Threefold wisdom: Islam, the Arab world and Africa. Papers in honour of Ivan
Hrbek. Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oriental Institute
Moraes Farias PF (1999) Tadmakkat and the image of Mecca: Epigraphic records of the work of the imagination in 11th-
century West Africa. In T Insoll (Ed.) Case studies in archaeology and world religion. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports and
Archaeopress
Moraes Farias PF (2003) Arabic medieval inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, chronicles and SonghayTuareg
history. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press for The British Academy
Moraes Farias PF (2006a) Barth, le fondateur dune lecture rductrice des Chroniques de Tombouctou. In M Diawara, PF de
Moraes Farias & G Spittler (Eds) Heinrich Barth et lAfrique. Cologne: Rdiger Kppe Verlag
Moraes Farias PF (2006b) Touareg et Songhay: Histoires croises, historiographies scindes. In H Claudot-Hawad (Ed.)
Berbres ou Arabes? Le tango des spcialistes. Paris: Editions Non Lieu
Moraes Farias PF (2006c) quoi sert lpigraphie arabe mdivale de lAfrique de lOuest? In C Descamps & A Camara
(Eds) Senegalia: tudes sur le patrimoine ouest-africain Hommage Guy Thilmans. Paris, Saint-Maur-des-Fosss:
Editions Sepia
Niane DT (1964) Mythes, lgendes et sources orales dans luvre de Mahmoud Kati. Recherches Africaines [tudes
guinennes, nouvelle srie] 1: 3642
Olivier de Sardan J-P (1975) Captifs ruraux et esclaves impriaux du Songhay. In C Meillassoux (Ed.) LEsclavage en Afrique.
Paris: Franois Maspero
Ralfs C (1855) Beitrge zur Geschichte und Geographie des Sudan. Eingesandt von Dr. Barth. Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft 9: 518594
al-Sadi (1964) Tarikh al-sudan. Edition and French translation by O Houdas & E Benoist. Paris: Librairie dAmrique et dOrient
Adrien-Maisonneuve for Unesco (reprint of the 18981900 edition)
INTELLECTUAL INNOVATION AND REINVENTION OF THE SAHEL: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES 107
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108
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 8
Introduction
Although the script of the Holy Quran has played such an important historical role in
the transcription of the languages of certain Islamised African peoples, this field has
aroused little interest among researchers because of a lack of sources and thus
remains largely unexamined to this day. However, it is a fundamental facet of Islams
immense cultural contribution to certain African civilisations.
This arises from the fact that before the Islamisation of sub-Saharan Africa, knowledge,
behaviour, historical narratives, language in its secret, selected and codified forms in sum,
everything which represents collective memory in its transmission from one generation to
the next all this was passed on orally, just as in pre-Islamic Arabia.
Of course, many older writing systems existed in Africa, of which the best known is that
of Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphics are behind a large part of modern knowledge, and they
continue to communicate with us. In the beginning of the fifteenth century (hijri) the
Bamoum of Cameroon created a somewhat crude writing system based on images. Vai
(Liberia) and Geez (Ethiopia) are two slightly more elaborate scripts.2 The Tifinagh
script, a system used to transcribe the Tuareg language, a relative of Berber, is still in
limited use in some areas, but is gradually being supplanted by the Quranic script.3
Opposite: A folio from
With the introduction of Islam, a new situation developed in sub-Saharan Africa, Manuscript No. 6113 in
where orality continued to be dominant. The new religion was intimately linked to a the Ahmed Baba Institute.
The text is written in Arabic
way of writing (kitab), and thus of reading (al-quran).4 These writings, which should be
script and the words are a
read in perfect accordance with the sacred message they bear, had been revealed to the mixture of Arabic and the
Prophet Muhammad whose mother tongue was Arabic. local Hassani language.
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 109
It is thus perfectly natural that this message, which was addressed to humanity and
transmitted in Arabic with its specific script, should gradually influence all aspects of
the societies which subscribed to it, especially in the sphere of writing.5 In this way the
history of writing certain sub-Saharan African languages will be interdependent with
that of Islam.
Historical survey
Islams 14 centuries in sub-Saharan Africa have been the subject of numerous studies
in several languages and the subject is far from exhausted.6 Considering the vastness of
this history, and the position it holds in a modest study such as this one, a reminder of
the main points insofar as they impact on the subject will surely help us to understand
and delimit our study.
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Islam thus makes contact with Africa by way of the Sahara, after having crossed the
Red Sea (al-Bahr al-Ahmar). It crosses Egypt (al-Fustat), Cyrenaica (Tarabulus al-Garb),
Ifriqiya (al-Ifriqiyya) and the Extreme Maghrib (al-Magrib al-Aqsa). As northsouth
links across the Sahara Desert were numerous and very old, it was quite natural that
Islam should make use of pre-existing caravan routes which linked the different
commercial centres of northern Africa with those of southern, eastern and western
Africa. Arabs and Berbers are often cited as having played an important part in the first
phase of this process.8 But the diversity of customs linked to the multiplicity of ethnic
groups suggests that the pace and means of the process varied in accordance with the
political, economic and social history of the ethnic groups.
It thus took several centuries for Islam to gradually spread through the social and
religious landscape, a process with two aspects:
instruction from the Quran, of which even partial knowledge is indispensable to all
believers in their duty to carry out the five daily prayers, one of the five pillars of
Islam;
education, which is inseparable from instruction in Islam, as the two complement
each other. Whilst the first teaches the reading, writing and understanding of the
message and the related sciences which popularise it, the second aims to take
responsibility for individuals from childhood by giving them the moral and material
means for the formation of their personalities with a view to their entry into the
community of believers (umma), where they will be responsible for further developing
the faith.
The place initially implicated in this fundamental task was the mosque (masjid), which
served as a place of prayer and debate affecting community life. Some mosques in time
became important centres of learning in disciplines other than the religious sciences.9
These centres served as beacons from which Islamic culture and knowledge were spread
throughout sub-Saharan Africa by itinerant scholars and their students. Certain merchants
and important rulers began to encourage the scholars and students in their efforts.
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 111
Timbuktu. Later the Tuaregs and the Moorish Kunta, who were very influential at the
time, spread it further south. Its crowning achievement was the creation, in the
nineteenth century, of theocratic states like the Dina of Humdallahi, the Sokoto
Caliphate and numerous principalities under Islamic sharia law.
Moreover, the pre-eminence of the Muslim religion caused no small concern for the
colonial administration, all the more so as the territory to which the latter aspired had
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been under the influence of Islamic scholars for several centuries. It was at this time
that the brotherhoods of Qadiriyya, Tijaniyya, Sanusiyya, Khalwatiyya and their
offshoots were busy reinvigorating Islam.11 Of course, there still existed pockets of
ancient or syncretic animist practice. However, in all regions, Islam was present in the
systemic machinery of political and social administration and served as a cement to
unify ethnic groups who were all the more disparate because of their divergent interests.
The predominance of Islam can be seen in the resistance conducted under its banner
by some Islamic scholars.12
Consequently, it is understandable that in order to establish its policies and realise its
occupational ambitions, the colonial administration should devote itself to destabil-
ising the centres which disseminated religious knowledge, centres which it viewed as
training recalcitrants hostile to its presence.
This practice of control and repression nonetheless did not shake the spirit of Islam.
Certainly, the level of education declined strongly over time, but for reasons better
linked with its own dynamics and the living conditions of Islamic populations than
The social domain was also reorganised by means of the different Islamic sciences,
notably that of jurisprudence (fiqh). All social philosophy and traditional practices
(marriage, birth, education and instruction) were influenced to differing degrees. Some
practices were totally Islamised, others only partially, but the process was under way. If
one looks at it closely, this influence was only possible in some cases because of the
similarity of the Islamic contribution to the standards in force in certain evolving
communities. Even today there exist centres resistant to the Quranic message, but a
large part of their social practice has been gradually infiltrated by Islamic norms.
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 113
In order to spread religious a relative term which applies more to the transcribed language than to the script itself.
knowledge and learning it was thus In fact, etymologically ajami is used to describe anything modified by incomprehension
necessary to find a method that or barbarism (ujma); thus its application to all languages incomprehensible to the
was comprehensible to the believer. Arabs. The latter contrasted it with eloquence (fasaha), which in their opinion was the
Local scholars (particularly those in very characteristic of the Arabic language.
the brotherhoods) versed themselves
Historically, this idea existed prior to Islam, as it preoccupied poets of the pre-Islamic
in the composition of texts in local
period. At that time, ajami was used more generally for the languages of neighbouring
languages. To liberate peoples minds
peoples, namely the Persians (al-furs) whose language was incomprehensible to the
the Quranic script was their only
Arabs, and later the Berbers (al-barbar) for the same reason.14 Consequently, one need
resort. This script was thus utilised
hardly note that the meaning of the word is dependent on its user and context.
in accordance with the uniqueness
of each individual language, taking Thus, in the pre-colonial Bilad al-Sudan ajami was very commonly used alongside
into account those languages that Arabic in all intellectual activities carried out by scholars, and also by the literate
possessed variations in dialect. masses in particular for correspondence during the colonial period.
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With our current knowledge we cannot state with certainty the period in which
scholars felt it necessary to resort to this script and to develop this literature in the Bilad
al-Sudan. Nor do we have sources allowing us to state if it was in imitation of other
Muslim communities (Persians and Berbers) who probably adopted it much earlier than
the peoples of Central Sudan.
The hypothesis put forward by oral tradition is that the use of the Quranic script is ancient
and goes back to the seventeenth century, but only became widespread in the eighteenth
century when Islam had gradually spread to the non-literate strata of society. It thus
became necessary to find a method of instruction suited to the fact that the majority of
believers did not know Arabic, which remained the language of learning.15
In order to spread religious knowledge and learning it was thus necessary to find a
method that was comprehensible to the believer. Local scholars (more particularly
those in the brotherhoods) versed themselves in the composition of texts in local
languages. To liberate peoples minds the Quranic script was their only resort. This
script was thus utilised in accordance with the uniqueness of each individual language,
taking into account those languages that possessed variations in dialect.
In addition, we also know that the ajami literature was methodically used as a means of
combat in the religious jihad undertaken by Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio and in the
political consolidation of the Sokoto Empire (see Chapter 9 of this volume).
At first each scholar would have had his own method of transcription, and because
some letters like the ayn, sad, sin, dad did not figure in certain African languages,
not all letters would have been retained. Other letters such as g, p, mb, nd, nh, nj, c,
yh existed in the African languages but not in the Quranic set. It was necessary to
invent them by adopting similar letters and integrating distinctive markings. But this
In fact, ajami concerned all fields of scholarly activity. We thus find treatises in the
following fields:
al-tib al-mahali (the description and traditional treatment of various illnesses);
al-saudala (the properties of plants and ways of using them);
ilm al-asrar (texts dealing with the field of the occult sciences);
translations of works and texts from Arabic into an African language;
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But the script was used primarily for religious matters and includes calls for the purification
of the faith, comment on the necessity of strengthening relations between different rural
and urban communities, and of developing a conscious Muslim character able to discern
social rifts and religious problems. The texts are in prose or in verse (mandhuma or qasida)
and the sources from which they are composed are the Quran; the biography of the
Prophet (sira); educational, historical narratives; extracts from biographies of messengers
and prophets (qisas al-anbiya); and Prophetic traditions (hadith).
In our context, the above disciplines are all the more important as the authors of these
texts are addressing believers who in many cases remain attached to ancestral practices
which they integrate with Islam. The themes are products of their context and milieu,
they keep their didactic characteristics as simplified teaching tools accessible to the
public at large. A few key trends can be seen in these texts.
Tawhid
The science of the unity of God (tawhid) is one of the disciplines which is dealt with in
numerous texts their aim is to bring syncretist believers to carry out the practices set
out in the Quran and Prophetic tradition. These texts are written from the observation
that, whilst the idea of the only God did not present difficulties for fresh converts who
were still attached to ancestral traditions, this was not so in the case of the secondary
gods that pervaded everyday life. These gods varied with tradition and were supposed
to provide protection from calamities, to intercede with the ancestors to control the
ecological environment, and to shield them from famine and epidemics, phenomena
which populations experienced cyclically.
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 115
Figure 8.1 A folio from Manu-
script No. 3503 in the Institut
de Recherche en Sciences
Humaines (IRSH/UAM), in
Niamey, the capital of Niger.
The author is al-Imam Abu
Halim b. Slay b.Zawji Marafa,
and the work is entitled
Manzuma fi al-waaz wa-l- irshad.
The text is written in Songhay
Zarma (one of the languages
spoken in western Niger and
the Timbuktu and Gao areas of
Mali). It contains extracts from
the Quran and prophetic
tradition, Muslim jurisprudence
and biographies of exemplary
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The tawhid discipline thus asserts the unity of God, a concept which many believers in
West Africa struggled to accept. Certainly the vast majority regularly practised the
principles of Islam, but continued to indulge in ancestral religions, forbidden in the
Quran and in Prophetic tradition.
The authors descriptions are drawn from those Quranic verses that deal with paradise,
a reward for the faithful described using Quranic imagery which has been carefully
adapted to the immediate environment. The authors also use the same methodology to
threaten eternal damnation in hell for perverse syncretists. IRSH/UAM no. 3503
(Figure 8.1) gives an idea of the ingenuity of the writers.
Fiqh
Another discipline which is dealt with in numerous texts is Muslim jurisprudence
(fiqh), whose aim was to explain the wisdom recorded in the Quran and in the books
of the Maliki jurisconsults (the most widely spread juridical school in western and Central
Bilad al-Sudan), particularly the chapters regarding daily life and social relationships
between believers. In addition, the authors drew on historical narratives (qisas al-
anbiya), extracts from Quranic commentary, and biblical narratives (al-israiliyyat), all
mixed with elements of local culture which were not openly contradictory to the above
principles. The goal of this discipline was to set out an exemplary model of behaviour
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 117
Figure 8.3 A folio from Manu-
script No 393 (IRSH/UAM),
a series of poems composed in
Fulfulde and Arabic by Shaykh
Uthman dan Fodio in honour
of the Prophet Muhammad.
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which, if followed, would achieve two objectives: obedience to God resulting in a stable
life here on Earth, and salvation in the afterlife which will be realised in paradise. In
the Bilad al-Sudan the influence of this discipline over the centuries gradually brought
different ethnic groups together, and then unified them to a certain extent. Prior to
their unification, these groups of pastoral and nomadic peoples had such divergent
interests that serious conflict would often result. One of the most noticeable conse-
quences of this disciplines influence was the linguistic and ethnic mixing between
Saharans and Sahelians through intermarriage. Today, community customs continue to
be influenced to one degree or another; some have been forgotten, whilst others are
disappearing. The fluctuating dynamics of this discipline, fed by a lack of equity in
political administration, at times resulted in the demand for the full application of
Islamic sharia law by the populations of some ancient religious cities.
Eulogistic poetry
Eulogistic poetry is dedicated to the memory of prophets and messengers, called in Hausa
Yabon Annabi and in SonghayZarma Annabi Sifey, but centres on the Prophet
Muhammad. By hagiographying persons considered godly and pure, they present
models to be imitated in particular ways. Like other original religious compositions
from West Africa, this discipline draws on cultural referents specific to the locale,
which partly explains its hold over the population. This poetry was first produced orally
before being translated into ajami.
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The poems composed by Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio in honour of the Prophet
Muhammad are examples of this genre.17 Composed in Fulfulde ajami and in Arabic,
these poems contain diverse elements of local culture (see Figure 8.3).
In the realm of education, at the same time as encouraging the creation of madrasas,
these states above all encouraged the colonial model of education from which local
administrative elites had derived. The trend in favour of colonial-style schooling
accentuated with independence, and younger generations were completely absorbed
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 119
into western schools. The rift thus widened between a generation of parents who had
grown up in the country in an Islam-influenced traditional culture, and their children,
who had become the elite and had grown up in large urban centres which tended to
promote western values through school. In less than a century and a half, this colonial
model managed by a local administration became a source of inspiration for the class of
future decision-makers.
On the other hand, with scholars who had remained attached to a culture largely
shaped by Islam, people conversant with ajami continued to use it in correspondence,
and Quranic schools continued to teach from the Quran. This duality is one of the
characteristics of schooling in Islamic West Africa.
But we are forced to note that today most African languages are transcribed using the
Latin alphabet, and linguistics is taught in universities in Romance languages. It seems
as if ajami will thus be gradually superseded. However, the states of the sub-region
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(Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Niger and Chad) have put into place national ajami literacy
programmes with the technical and financial support of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation; the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation; and the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation.
What is more, round-table discussions have been organised with the aim of standard-
ising transcription systems and fine-tuning literary programmes. Preliminary results
have produced an operational literacy programme in standardised ajami, which will
serve as a tool for local community training in line with the mindset of the population.
Conclusion
As for the relevant populations, they remain firmly attached to the ajami script which
is tied to the Quran, their holy book.
REFERENCES
Batran AA (1990) Rvolutions Islamiques. In JFA Ajayi (Ed.) Histoire gnrale de lAfrique (vol. 6). Paris: Unesco
Cuoq J (1975) Recueils des sources arabes concernant lAfrique Occidentale du VIIIe au XVe sicle. Paris: CNRS
Daniel R (1970) Croyances religieuses et vie quotidienne. Islam et Christianisme Ouagadougou, Recherches Voltaques.
Paris: CNRS
El-Fasi M & Hrbek I (1990) Etapes du dveloppement de lislam et de sa diffusion en Afrique. In M el-Fasi (Ed.) Histoire
gnrale de lAfrique (vol. 3). Paris: Unesco
Gibb HAR et al. (Eds) (1975) Encyclopdie de lIslam (second edition). Leiden: Brill
Hamani D (1981) Contribution lhistoire de lislamisation des populations nigriennes avant la colonisation. Provisional
document. Universit de Niamey
Hamani D (1988) Les personnalits clbres dans culture et civilisation Islamiques (le NIGER). Rabat: ISESCO
Hamidullah M (trans.) (1989) Le Saint Coran et la traduction en langue franaise. Medina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: La
Prsidence Gnrale des Directions de Recherches Scientifiques Islamiques, of Ifta, of the Prdication et de lorganisation
Religieuse
Kimba I (1981) Guerres et socits, les populations du (Niger) Occidental au XIXe Sicle et leurs ractions la colonisation
(18961906). Etudes Nigriennes 46: 4849
Ki-Zerbo J (1972) Histoire de lAfrique. Paris: Hatier
Ki-Zerbo J (Gen. ed.) (1990) Histoire gnrale de lAfrique (nouvelles editions, 8 vols). Paris: Unesco
Laroui A (1970) Histoire du Maghreb. Paris: Maspero
Moumouni Z (1984) LIslam au Niger. LIslam Aujourdhui 2: 199206
Salifou A (1971) Le Damagaram ou Sultanat de Zinder au XIXe Sicle. Etudes Nigriennes 27: 66
Traor A (1983) Islam et colonisation en Afrique, Shaykh Hamahoullah, homme de foi et rsistant. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose
AJAMI IN AFRICA: THE USE OF ARABIC SCRIPT IN THE TRANSCRIPTION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES 121
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122
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 9
Although many of the Sokoto caliphal writings are in Arabic, a significant number of
manuscripts, written in the Arabic script, are in local languages, principally Fulfulde
and Hausa. The ajami literature, despite its potential in broadening our understanding
of the history of the Sokoto Caliphate, has been only partially exploited by scholars
and, more often than not, for linguistic rather than historical studies.3 This chapter is
an attempt to explore the significance of the ajami literature with a view to under-
standing the role it played in the establishment and consolidation of the caliphate.
Despite the proliferation of ajami manuscripts in the late eighteenth and in the
nineteenth centuries, the development of ajami literature in the Central Bilad al-Sudan
before the eighteenth century is difficult to trace with any degree of certainty. John
Phillipss assertion that the first ajami writing for which we have [a] reliable (though
not absolute) date is Riwayar Annabi Musa by the famous Kano scholar Abdullahi Suka
which may be seen in the manuscript collection of the Jos Museum.4 While Abd Allah
b. Muhammad b. Salim, known as Abdullahi Suka, flourished in the mid-seventeenth
Opposite: An example of ajami
century and authored the Atiyyat al-muti,5 there is no firm indication to identify him literature, using both African
conclusively as the author of the said Hausa ajami manuscript. It is also possible that and European languages.
Mervyn Hiskett, who undertook a more extensive work on Hausa ajami literature and
the development of Hausa Islamic verse, adopted a more cautious approach to the
subject.7 Hiskett drew attention to the existence of two dominant forms of Hausa oral
literature: the kirari (praise epithets) and wakar yabo (praise songs).8 While these forms
could find themselves in lists of kings that ruled and historical chronicles,9 they
remained patently un-Islamic and though they survived they could not be integrated
into the mainstream of the Islamic literary tradition. Thus the Hausa literate verse as
we know it today, argued Hiskett, was essentially an Islamic creation and possibly an
innovation introduced by the Sokoto reformers.10
Although the history of the Hausa literate verse could not be fully ascertained before
the late eighteenth century, there is some evidence to suggest that some form of
Fulfulde ajami literature was in existence by the second half of the seventeenth century
and that it was coherent enough to have attracted the attention of serious Islamic
scholars like Muhammad al-Wali b. Sulayman al-Fallati (fl.168889).11 The latters al-
Manhaj al-farid fi marifat ilm al-tawhid was an Arabic version of some Fulfulde commen-
taries on the Sughra of al-Sanusi, one of the major texts for the study of tawhid in West
Africa.12 How much Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio and his colleagues elaborated on the
Zamfara and Kebbi. Abdullahi dan Fodio (d.1829) was emphatic on the role ajami
literature played in this mobilisation process when he wrote:
Then we rose with the Shaikh, helping him in his mission work for religion. He
traveled for that purpose to the East and West, calling people to the religion of God
by his preaching and his qasidas [odes] in Ajami [Hausa and Fulfulde] and destroying
customs contrary to Muslim Law.14
Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio himself, in emphasising the strategic importance of using ajami
in his mobilisation efforts, had this to say in his Fulfulde poem titled Babuwol kire:15
The focus of Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio and his lieutenants at this stage of the
movement appears to have been on developing a conscious Muslim personality, able to
discern the social ills of Hausaland and its religious problems and contradictions.16 This
apparent socioreligious protest found expression in several ajami poems, particularly
those authored by Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio. One poem which has enjoyed some
popularity in this category is Shaykh Uthmans Fulfulde urjuza, called Boneji Hausa (Ills
of Hausaland).17 This poem admits the many evils prevalent in Hausa society and the
conspiracy of silence by leaders of thought which made it difficult to address them in
any serious and systematic manner. The poem proceeds to highlight some of these ills:
Another poem by Shaykh Uthman which falls into this category is Wasuyeji (Advice),
which discouraged social intercourse with oppressive rulers, innovators and other
undesirable characters and encouraged keeping the company of the pious, the learned
and followers of the Sunna, for the latter, according to the shaykh, was superior to both
ones father and mother.18 Shaykh Uthmans Fulfulde poem Hasotobe further elaborated
on one group of these undesirable characters, the rumour-mongers and hate-mongers
who saw nothing good in what the shaykh and his disciples were trying to accomplish.19
The second category of ajami literature which played an important role during the
mobilisation phase of Shaykh Uthmans reform movement and subsequently is the waazi
(Hausa) or waju (Fulfulde) poetry. Waaz, as Sultan Muhammad Bello b. Shaykh
Uthman understood it, constituted reminding people about the hereafter, its pleasures
and its trials and tribulations with a view to instilling the fear of God into their hearts.20
The Fulfulde qasida with the title Duniyayel (This Miserable World) and attributed to
Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio falls into this category of Waazi literature. This and similar
poems attempt to underscore the transient nature of this world and to bring home the
realisation that it is only the hereafter which is real. The examples Duniyayel raises are
indeed classic:
Abdullahi dan Fodios Hausa qasida, Mulkin audu,22 paints a more graphic picture of the
fleeting nature of the world and of the day of resurrection:
Woe to us on the day it shall be said What of so and so? Today he has passed away.
Everything of his has passed away
All the heirs now drink the soup.
When the day of your death comes,
You will forget son and grandchild.
The wealth you have hidden away, will not ransom you, you hear?
On the Day of Resurrection there will be summons;
All mankind we shall assemble.
There will be no waist wrapper, nay, not even a loin cloth;
there will be none to laugh!
Judgment will be given, the division will be made;
every unbeliever will suffer torment.
Shaykh Uthmans Yimre Jahima23 extends further the discussion on hellfire by mentioning
those who will suffer the torment24 and seek refuge from the fire of Jahima (hell). Finally,
the issue of repentance (tuba, tubuye) brings to a logical conclusion the cyclical
discourse of the waazi literature. Shaykh Uthmans Inna gime (Mother of Poems)25 is a
good example of a repentance poem, illustrating quite vividly their supplicatory nature.
The third category of ajami literature relevant to our understanding of the Sokoto
Caliphate at the early stage of its history is the didactic verse that was meant to teach
the rudiments of fiqh, tawhid and sira. Muhammad Bello in his Infaq al-maysur had
shown clearly the importance of these subjects in Shaykh Uthmans sermons,26 and it
is very probable that ajami was effectively utilised to get the message across to the
On tawhid, one of the extant works is a Hausa composition by one of the disciples of
Shaykh Uthman, Malam Usman Miga, called Musan samuwar jalla.29 According to
Hisketts analysis, the work was based on Jawharat al-tawhid of Ibrahim al-Laqani
(d.1668), and Umm al-Barahin of Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Sanusi (d.1486).30 An
example of sira literature in ajami is Abdullahi dan Fodios Wakar sira, which gives an
elaborate genealogy of the Prophet and various aspects of the Prophets biography.31
Related to the sira literature but pursued more for spiritual and devotional purposes was
the madh al-nabi (Praise of the Prophet) literature. This group of ajami verse, both in
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Hausa and Fulfulde, is again quite extensive but could not be accurately dated or firmly
attributed to any of the principal actors at this stage of the history.32
The events leading to the hijra and jihad of Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio have been fairly
well established. The Tazyin al-waraqat of Abdullahi dan Fodio and the Infaq al-maysur
of Sultan Muhammad Bello have given detailed accounts of these momentous events
and the resultant consequences. As far as mobilising people for the hijra was concerned,
once again ajami played a vital role. In the words of Abdullahi dan Fodio:
Then our Shaikh Uthman May God perpetuate the glory of Islam through him
when he saw the greatness of the community, and their desire to break away from
the unbelievers, and commence Holy War, began to incite them to arms and he
began to pray to God that He should show him the sovereignty of Islam in this
country of the Sudan and he set this to verse in his non-Arabic qasida called
Qadiriyya33 (emphasis mine)
It could also be argued that ajami literature played an equally important role in mobil-
ising for jihad and for understanding how it should be conducted in accordance with the
tenets of the sharia. Sultan Muhammad Bellos urjuza, titled Yimre jihadi, is one of the
extant works in this category of ajami literature.34 Closely related to the jihad poems is
the report of battles and the celebration of the jihadists victory in them. Abdullahi dan
Fodios Hausa Poem recounting the Muslim victory at Kalambaina35 is a good example.
In later years Nana Asmau, the daughter of Shaykh Uthman, became one of the
principal personalities who gave account of some of these battles, as can be seen from
her many poems on the subject. It is, however, important to note that Nana Asmau
was not merely a chronicler of the caliphates battles and victories. Through her educa-
It is also important to recognise that Nana Asmau not only witnessed the consoli-
dation of the Sokoto Caliphate but also the demise of almost all those who played
pivotal roles in its establishment. The large body of ajami literature on eulogies and
elegies which Nana Asmau left us bears testimony to the traumatic nature of these
experiences as well as her determination and resilience in ensuring continuity and in
helping to restore the emotional balance of society.38
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Political protest
The last category of ajami literature which this chapter will consider is that dealing with
political protest. Drastic political change, like that witnessed in Hausaland under the
leadership of Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio, could only come with huge sacrifices and great
expectations. Whenever the leadership failed to meet these expectations, the very instru-
ments used to overthrow the status quo ante could also be effectively exploited to subvert
the new order. This brings us to an examination of ajami as subversive literature.
For the Sokoto Caliphate, however, we need to approach this subject matter with some
caution. It could be argued that the radical tradition which was popularised by
Abdullahi dan Fodio might not have been fully extinguished even after the consoli-
dation of the caliphate. Abdullahi dan Fodio, it will be recalled, was disenchanted with
the course of the jihad as early as 1808:
Many Sokoto scholars who wrote in ajami were not unsympathetic to Abdullahi dan
Fodios position and, as the transgressions mounted, these voices became more strident.
Malam Muhammadu Na Birnin Gwari (fl.1850) was one of those voices:
The second voice is that of Muhammad Raji b. Ali b. Abi Bakr (d. after 186566).
Modibbo Raji,41 as he was popularly known, wrote a Fulfulde qasida which he titled
Alamaaji ngirbuki (The Signs of Collapse), echoing similar sentiments to those of
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It is interesting that Modibbo Raji, like Abdullahi dan Fodio, also expressed immense
interest in hijra, preferably to Medina, retracing the footsteps of the Prophet:
Had it been that I have where to run to, I would have escaped.
I would then retrace the Prophets footsteps in Medina.
In reality, the body has remained motionless, unable to commence the journey;
but the mind has eagerly left while the limbs have been stationary.43
Concluding remarks
I have in this chapter attempted to explore the significance of ajami literature in the
study of the Sokoto Caliphate. I have examined the difficulties of tracing the history of
the ajami Islamic verse in the Central Bilad al-Sudan and addressed the argument that
it might have been the Sokoto Caliphate which gave this literature its current identity
and character. I have further examined the role that ajami literature played during the
mobilisation phase of the reform movement, particularly in helping the jihad leaders put
across their message to their teeming but unlettered followers. It would be difficult to
imagine the Sokoto jihad emerging as a mass movement without taking into account
the effective exploitation of ajami to achieve this objective.
The chapter has also raised the problem of authorship and accurate dating as some of
the key problems which make it difficult to take full advantage of the available ajami
literature. It is my opinion that greater efforts should be made to recover more
manuscripts so as to provide a larger and more varied resource pool, which could help
clear some of the lingering problems. Researchers should also focus on custodians of
oral tradition older men and women and guilds of the blind who were known for
their knowledge of the oral traditions to get the oral rendition of these documents, as
well as information on their authors.
While Hausa and Fulfulde are usually regarded as the two dominant ajami languages in
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Nigeria, we should also explore the availability of ajami literature in other Islamic
languages including Nupe, Kanuri and Yoruba. This recovery effort will be greatly
assisted with better insight into the development of language specific ajami ortho-
graphy and how this has changed over the centuries.
1 The period 18041903 represents the approximate dates of the existence of the caliphate. Although the
jihad commenced in 1804, Sokoto was not established until about half a decade later. Secondly, the mobilisation phase
started as early as 1774 when Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio, the leader of the reform movement, commenced his preaching
tours. For a general history of the caliphate, see Last (1977). See also Hiskett (1973) and Fodio (1963).
2 See Hunwick & OFahey (1995).
3 See Hiskett (1975) and Furniss (1996). The most useful exploitation of this resource to date remains Boyd & Mack
(1999).
4 Phillips (1999: 19).
5 For details on Abdullahi Suka see Hunwick & OFahey (1995: 3233).
6 Phillips (1999: 1920).
7 For a discussion on the issue see Hiskett (1975: 111).
8 Hiskett (1975).
9 Hiskett (1975: 23) referred to the Kirari in the Kano Chronicle as an example of this category of Hausa literature. It is
also possible that the Kanuri girgam tradition in Bornu could have had its origins in similar circumstances. See Palmer
(1936).
10 Hiskett (1975: 18) believes that Islamic verse in Hausa was probably composed during the pre-jihad period but not to
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any significant extent, and there is no evidence that it was ever written down.
11 See Hunwick & OFahey (1995: 3437). It must be pointed out that al-Manhaj al-farid is a prose work and not an
indication of any literate verse tradition. Though there are references in the field to Fulfulde poems composed by Shaykh
Tahir b. Ibrahim al-Fallati (d. after 174546), these have not come to light.
12 See Hunwick & OFahey (1995: 35).
13 See Last (1977: 340).
14 Fodio (1963: 8586).
15 See Abubakar et al. (2004: 1825).
16 Sultan Muhammad Bello gave some glimpses into his fathers propagation techniques and strategies during this phase
of the movement. See Bello (1951).
17 See Saidu (1979: 203205).
18 See Saidu (1979: 198199).
19 See Saidu (1979: 201202).
20 Bello (1951: 9194).
21 Abubakar et al. (2004: 38).
22 Reproduced in Hiskett (1975: 2931).
23 Saidu (1979: 206207).
24 Shaykh Uthman mentioned the hate-monger, thieves and adulterers, misappropriators of zakat, mischief makers, avaricious
rulers, corrupt judges, one who defies judgement of the qadi and the Mallam [scholars] who failed to follow what he
learnt (Saidu 1979: 207).
25 Saidu (1979: 197198).
26 Bello (1951: 7494).
27 See Abubakar et al. (2004: 1825). The furu poems which deal with the various branches of fiqh abound in the various
manuscript collections. However, the problem of dating makes it difficult to attribute them to the period under discussion.
28 A Fulfulde rendering of the Ihya al-Sunna, in urjuza form, has turned up in the uncatalogued Arabic collection of the
Sokoto State History Bureau. The paper is quite old, written by what could be termed a steady jihadi hand. It is in
fragmentary form and bears neither a title nor a date of composition.
29 Poem quoted by Hiskett (1975: 6871).
30 Hiskett (1975).
31 Hiskett (1975: 5358). The Fulfulde qasida of Abdullahi dan Fodios Wakar sira also appears in Abubakar et al. (2004:
2667) and is firmly attributed to him. The question immediately arises as to which of the two poems was the original
and which one was a translation. This problem may affect many other poems, particularly during the middle period
(184070) when many of these poems were translated, usually into Hausa.
of desire and it will not return; But my sin kept my body away from it, confused (1963: 122).
REFERENCES
Abubakar MB, Tahir US, Hamid B & Dewa S (Compilers and trans) (2004) Fulfulde poems (Vol. 1). Yola: Sokoto Bicentenary
Committee
Bello M (1951) Infaq al-Maysur fi tarikh bilad al-Takrur. London: Luzac
Boyd J & Mack B (1999) The collected works of Nana Asmau, daughter of Usman dan Fodiyo (17931864). Ibadan: Sam
Bookman Publishers
Fodio A (1963) Tazyin al-waraqat. Edited and translated by M Hiskett. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press
Furniss G (1996) Poetry, prose and popular culture in Hausa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Hiskett M (1973) The sword of truth: The life and times of the Shehu Usman dan Fodio. New York: Oxford University Press
Hiskett M (1975) A history of Hausa Islamic verse. London: School of Oriental and African Studies
Hunwick JO & RS OFahey (Eds) (1995) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of Central Sudanic Africa (Vol. 2). Leiden: Brill
Last M (1977) The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longman
Palmer R (1936) The Bornu, Sahara and Sudan. London: John Murray
Phillips JE (1999) Spurious Arabic: Hausa and colonial Nigeria. Madison: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-
Madison
Saidu AG (1979) The significance of Shehus sermons and poems in Ajami. In YB Usman (Ed.) Studies in the history of the
Sokoto Caliphate. Zaria: Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University for the Sokoto State History Bureau
134
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 10
Much has been written on the Fondo Kati, the huge collection of old manuscripts in
Arabic now preserved in a library built in Timbuktu with considerable aid from the
government of Andalucia.1 The collections founder seems to have been a Goth (al-
Quti) from Granada, who left Spain circa 1468 AD.2 It is an extraordinarily rich
collection, only recently come to public notice. Its very presence in Timbuktu
highlights the question not only of personal libraries but also of the way books were
made and sold in West Africas pre-colonial past. Some scholarly communities are
relatively well researched: perhaps the most notable are the nomadic Shinqitti scholars
of Mauritania, western neighbours of their Timbuktu colleagues; both looked to
Morocco and to a lesser extent Algeria for their imports of paper as well as texts.3
The focus in this chapter is on manuscripts. Interesting and even more neglected though
it is, I have omitted from discussion the trade in printed Arabic books. I do not know
what the earliest printed Arabic book in West Africa is. In scholarly Mauritania Shaykh
Sidiyas first printed book arrived as late as 1861, reports Charles Stewart.4 But elsewhere
West African scholars in the eighteenth century owned what may have been printed
copies of texts by Euclid (obtainable in Mecca), and perhaps also other technical or
scientific works. The Sokoto builder, for example, who asked for and got from
Clapperton a Gunters scale, already had all the architectural papers which his father
had acquired in Cairo.5 Similarly, on that second visit to Sokoto in 1826 Clapperton
brought out for Muhammad Bello some suitable books printed in Arabic Euclids
Elements, a work by Ibn Sina, and the History of the Tartars, along with a Holy Quran,
the New and Old Testaments, and the Psalms.6 When Fellata (Fulfulde speaking)
scholars returned, from Mecca,the empires of Turkey and Morocco,Algiers, Tunis
and Tripoli, bringing back with them all the Arabic books they were able to beg or buy,
Opposite: Examples of manuscripts
no doubt amongst the texts that they brought back were some printed volumes.7 Bound
enclosed in protective tooled
printed books were presumably cheaper in North African markets and more immedi- leather wallets which enhanced
ately available than specially commissioned copies to be made by hand. Presses capable their portability.
I want here to look briefly at the problems of manuscript books further to the east of
Timbuktu the Muslim scholarly communities of Hausaland and Borno in modern-day
Nigeria and focus on the pre-colonial period, especially the nineteenth century when
the Sokoto Caliphate had succeeded in uniting a larger region than any other
independent state in Africa. The state was four months journey west to east, and two
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months north to south. It was run as a confederation of emirates under the amir al-
muminin in Sokoto with a bureaucratic staff who corresponded by letters written in
Arabic in a Maghribi script.9 The Arabic used was classical, not the colloquial speech
of North Africa or the Sudan. The language of everyday speech was Fulfulde or Hausa,
but neither language was regularly used in writing prose (it was used for verse). Thus
the common market here for books was potentially huge, among shaykhs and students
alike, and both moved freely around the caliphate.
Books, like letters, travelled too.10 Of course, many books moved not as a set of pages
but as memories in the minds of those who had memorised them. And books were
sometimes composed on the move. Scholars on a journey with their books, however,
rarely unpacked them en route, it seems. The bibliophile Ahmad Baba, returning home to
Timbuktu in 1607 after his release from detention as a hostage in Marrakesh, apologised
to the reader of the book he was writing en route al-Lamfil-ishara li-hukm tibgh for
any errors in his quotations (he was writing on the legality of using tobacco, then a new
import from the Americas). His books, he said, were all still on his camels as he crossed
the wadi Draa and so he could not check the accuracy of the citations he was making
off head. One exceptional Middle Eastern scholar who was regularly on tour put his
library on camelback but ensured his books (and his camels) were kept in alphabetical
order.11 West African scholars were not usually so peripatetic or so well stocked with
books (or camels). Shaykh Uthman, making his hijra from Degel at the start of a risky
jihad in the late dry season of 1804, packed up his books and had then to borrow a camel
from a Tuareg colleague, Malam Agali, to carry his precious library.12 It is interesting
that he chose a camel for the purpose rather than the pack oxen his kinsmen, the
pastoral Fulbe, regularly used. Fulbe scholars such as Shaykh Uthman had close links
to the Berber world of Saharan scholarship, both as students and as copiers of texts only
to be found in the Sahara, but he did not speak Tamacheq (his daughter Asmau did),
the common language between scholars being classical Arabic as Latin could be for
Europeans until the 1950s.
about the far southern end of this single yet divided world. However, the characteristics
of the contemporary European book culture were very different, perhaps because paper
was introduced about the same time as printing, and together they transformed the
European book trade.15 In West Africa, paper became available to students of Islam some
300 years before the printing press. Indeed, paper was already being widely used in the
Muslim world some two or three centuries before Muslims entered West Africa West
African scholarship therefore never had to make and use vellum for its books.
The data on which this chapter is based were initially collected in the mid-1960s when,
with the great encouragement of HFC Smith and John Hunwick, I worked for three
years (196567) on the Northern History Research Scheme at Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria.17 In all, I catalogued some 10 000 manuscript books, including the entire Arabic
manuscript collection (over 3 000 manuscripts) in the National Archives, Kaduna, and
photographed rare books in private libraries around the country, among them 100 Fulfulde
manuscripts. This was followed by a further period of work from 197880 at Bayero
The context
Hausaland is on the cusp between the western Wangarawa trade system with its book
base in Timbuktu and links to Moroccan scholarship, and the eastern Borno-centred
system oriented more towards Tripoli and Cairo. Interleaved amidst these two systems
were Fulbe scholars and their students. They had connections to the Berber scholars of
the Sahel and the Sahara as well as to such a notably scholarly Wangara trade town as
Yandoto. They were also connected to the stream of Fulfulde-speaking pilgrims from
the far west (the Takruri) passing to and fro on the pilgrimage to Mecca, no doubt
carrying books, news and ideas in their baggage. But Borno may have been their best
source of books distinguished Fulbe scholars were based there, as were the Tripoli
merchants with a tradition of importing Italian paper. This might explain why the
majority of texts cited by Uthman dan Fodio in his Bayan wujub al-hijraala l-ibad18 are
Arabic. Scholars of this tradition taught texts (some also preached) and sought out
copies of new books. As exceptional Arabists, it would be they who might be employed
as tutors at royal courts. The necessity to be a good Arabist made their circles (daira)
exclusive, even elitist. The focus was more on jurisprudence (fiqh), legal studies
requiring the use of a range of books and a greater degree of international sophisti-
cation; in addition, Sufism, tasawwuf, especially the Qadiriyya, was an important new
element for some. Fiqh was important for merchants and for the qadis who mediated
trade disputes scholars had a role in maintaining social peace20 but it also made
students increasingly aware of how local Muslim governments were breaking Islamic
law and practice. In this sense, this second tradition was potentially revolutionary. The
emphasis on literacy meant that local-language poetry was composed and written in
ajami (that is, local languages written in Arabic script); marginal notes on key texts
such as the Holy Quran could be written in ajami too. This use of local languages gave
rise to specific religious dialects, such as Kanembu, alongside the vernacular Kanuri.21
Religious poetry in ajami became a vehicle for popular education and piety, being easily
memorable and sung while walking or working.
These two distinct styles of Islamic scholarship persisted into the twentieth century:
students enlisted in either one or the other. One was identified with Hausa, the other with
Fulani, but both used Hausa (and Arabic) as the language of instruction. The preaching
tradition remains strong and diverse. The most notable now are perhaps the Yan Izala22 but
small, radical groups can often be heard in the marketplaces or on the streets; the preachers
also go into villages deep in the countryside.23 Though the two styles of scholarship are
complementary, it is the second tradition, with the importance it puts on books, that is
the focus of this chapter. An underlying question, however, is what contribution this
bookishness (its lifestyle, its learning) made to enabling a distinct political culture to
arise in West Africa, a culture that led to jihad and the establishment in the nineteenth
century of major Islamic states those of Sokoto, Masina and Sgou. By contrast, was it
the preachers who led to widespread conversion and personal piety but not to major
and widely read. In this context, then, the significance of books simply as material
objects the book trade over time perhaps needs to be examined more closely.
The problem
Although the book trade should be considered regionally, the scale of the problem can
be illustrated by taking northern Nigeria as an example. Here one might tentatively
estimate that in 1900 (three years before the imposition of colonial rule) there was a
book stock of a quarter of a million books, housed in the libraries of individuals with a
few really large collections in emirs palaces and scholarly households. Depending on
what is counted as a book, the figure might well be closer to half a million. The vast
majority of these books are copies, often incomplete, of school texts; almost all are
religious books. Locally composed books original or prcis of classical texts form
a small percentage of the total, and are nineteenth century or later in origin. The calcu-
lation of the book stock is more of a guess than an estimate, since the crucial problem
statistically is how many books were owned on average by each of the vast number of
minor scholars, the malamai, and by the literate public generally. Paul Martys figure of
three or four each for the Ivory Coast in 1920 seems plausible.24 Jack Goody quotes that
14 scholars in the important scholarly town of Salaga in the 1960s each had an average
of 35 books, but they were almost all new printed texts.25 In 1962, John Paden reported
that the Kano scholar Umar Falke left some 1 600 manuscript books (the collection is
now in Northwestern University Library). One clearly cannot read these 1960s figures
back into the nineteenth century, particularly as it appears that a wealthy and
important late nineteenth-century official like the Madakin Kano left on his death only
six books;26 Sokotos Waziri Gidado in the 1820s had only a small collection of books,
of which one was on dreams.27 Nonetheless, Ahmad Baba lost some 1600 books in
Timbuktu in the invasion of 1591.28 A collection like that in the National Archives in
Kaduna was made up of manuscripts bought from malamai for very low prices and
All these are male-owned books; how many women scholars there were, and how many
books they owned, is simply an unknown. There were indeed famous women scholars,
daughters of famous fathers, and they wrote much poetry. We know that there were, and
still are, women Sufis organised into groups the Yan Taru started by Nana Asmau in
the mid-nineteenth century are well known.29 But we dont know how many there were
or what books they possessed; they may not have had very many. We know, too, that in
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major scholarly houses the children were taught to read and write, and first learned the
Holy Quran under the learned women of the house. How many such households there were
can only be a matter of conjecture; so too is the number of books, if any, that women
owned in their own right my guess would be a Holy Quran (or parts of one), a small
book or two of selected prayers (al-Jazulis Dalail al-khairat, for example), and perhaps
some poetry in either Arabic or in ajami (Fulfulde or Hausa; perhaps Kanuri in Borno).
Books inherited from a fathers library would normally be divided up and go to the sons
or, in the absence of sons, to male relatives. However, there must have been learned
daughters who managed to secure a share and got or in some way paid for the texts they
most wanted for themselves. No doubt women scholars could borrow books from father
or uncle, brother or husband, and have them copied (or copy them themselves), but
this is a dimension of scholarly life we as yet know very little about, either in relation
to the recent past or the pre-colonial period. Today bookshops, for example in Kano,
sell printed texts in Arabic, and many women have gone on the pilgrimage to Mecca,
but what books (if any) they bring back with them has not been researched. Shops in
cities like London and Paris also offer a range of printed books; it was from these that I
bought each year the books I gave to my teacher, the Wazirin Sokoto, books he didnt
have in his large collection. But I was never asked by a wife for a book unsurprisingly.
In short, I suggest there was, around 1900, a potential book-using (and book-making?)
clientele comprising 50 000 people who were well educated, plus some 35 000 teachers
and 165 000 students. Although these figures (derived from the 1921 Nigerian census) are
undoubtedly unreliable, it would seem safe to assume there were at least some 250 000
people literate in Arabic or ajami, with a much larger number who had had some
experience of Quranic schools.30 In addition, there will have been several thousand
educated women. What we do not know is the size of the demand for books for
example, how much such students and scholars would be willing to pay for a copy of a
book. Paper in the nineteenth century was relatively cheap and available, so a student
How, then, did this vast book stock get produced and distributed? And, given the size
of this market, what was the demand for what sort of books, and how was it supplied?
Did the book market work and, if not, why not? Let me at the outset reverse normal
scholarly procedure and outline for purposes of discussion the broad historical
hypotheses I have to suggest.
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A schematic historical periodisation of the book trade in West Africa generally might
be as follows:
Timbuktu, we know, was rich in books, but what of Borno? I suggest that there the
relatively trivial books about Mai Idris Alooma, in which his military campaigns are
described, would otherwise stand out as an odd use of paper if paper had been scarce.
Similar long, secular texts, however, were being written in paper-rich Timbuktu at
about this time most notably the Tarikh al-Sudan and the Tarikh al-fattash so that it
is tempting to identify this period as a new phase in the book culture of West Africa,
when quantities of paper could be devoted to original compositions on non-religious
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matters. A question remains why there arent more such surviving secular texts: must
we assume that there were no potential historians (or suitable kings for celebrating) in
other states or, alternatively, that all other such trivial texts have been lost without
trace? Not being textbooks, were they not copied and re-copied? By contrast, the brief
legal documents, the mahrams awarding grants to people or places, do survive in Borno;
they had at least a monetary value to their owners and were far from trivial, so scarcely
an extravagant use of paper.
was Alhaji Nasiru Kabara who suddenly one afternoon, after months of talk, showed
Professor MA al-Hajj the only known copy of the important seventeenth-century text
Asl al-wangariyyin. Similarly, I was never allowed direct access to the sultans library in
Sokoto; books from it were always brought out to me by the Alkalin Lardi Yahaya.
Hence even the size of large personal libraries is rarely known until the owners death
requires an inventory to be made for the formal purpose of dividing up the inheritance.
Other languages were more difficult to read in ajami. As already mentioned, Kanembu
is found in marginal annotations and there is a body of Kanuri religious poetry in
Borno, but I dont think its use was ever as common in Borno as Fulfulde or Hausa
became in the Sokoto Caliphate. Heavily tonal languages like Nupe, for example, or
Yoruba can be rendered in ajami but it is usually only the author that can re-read them;
in this sense, such texts in ajami become an aide-mmoire only for the composer and are
not sold. There is a short poem in Nupe ajami by the early nineteenth-century reformer
Abd al-Rahman Chacha that remains unread; and there are letters in Yoruba ajami that
date to the 1930s. Presumably other such secret texts remain to be discovered. The
language of jinn could be written in ajami; there is a brief passage in jinni prose in a book
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This new literature, along with the new audiences created by the success of the jihad
and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate, would appear to have stimulated the
revival of a local book trade in the nineteenth century. As already mentioned, each of
the three main leaders wrote some hundred prose works of varying length but many of
these books, unlike others, were widely circulated as guidance to the new generation of
emirs and to officials that governed the new state matters of law as well as practical
tips on good governance. Other texts of theirs were works of specialist scholarship.
There were also texts on Sufi mysticism for members of the Qadiriyya tariqa, which by
the mid-nineteenth century was being rivalled by the new Tijaniyya tariqa its shaykhs
then produced their own literature in both prose and verse. All these devotional
writings needed to circulate among a much wider readership than had existed hitherto.
To sum up, the main centre for the importation of books during the boom period when
prices and demand were highest appears to have been Timbuktu and related markets,
with Wangarawa scholartraders and Fulbe scholars en route to and from Mecca being
the main distributors from there eastwards. It seems probable too that Timbuktu, along
with Borno, then also pioneered the substitution of bulk paper imports in place of texts.
Indeed, their role in the paper trade may have made it easy for scholars in the two
places to keep records and write works of local history; elsewhere, the price and scarcity
of paper may have inhibited using so much paper for such secular uses.
If, as seems likely, Bornos development later as a centre of the book trade (with Kano
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as a related market) was built less on importing books than on copying them, it is
nonetheless probable that some of the earliest non-Maghribi texts came to Borno from
Egypt, Tripoli or Tunis and went into West African circulation from there. But one can
draw only very limited inferences of provenance, given the range of contacts available
to West African scholars through such less conspicuous merchant networks as the
Ibadis and through their own travels, undertaken sometimes in search of a specific book
which they needed to copy.
Finally, in the nineteenth century, first the Sokoto Caliphate and then other jihadi
centres evidently became foci for a regional trade in locally composed texts, and so
helped to revive a general market for books which recently, it seems, had come to be
found only in private circulation. We know that, once the jihad was successful, Sokoto
thronged with Arab visitors seeking (and winning) favours; perhaps to gain a good
reception these visitors had brought books as gifts. The import trade, however, appears
not to have revived. It is for this reason, then, that Uthman dan Fodio and his family
(especially Muhammad Bello as amir al-muminin in Sokoto) may have specifically sent
out emissaries to buy books in North Africa and Egypt and bring them back. We have
no rihlat recounting these book-buying expeditions, nor lists of what they brought back;
all we know is that Fulbe scholars had indeed travelled for books before the jihad. The
jihad, with all its hasty escapes and raids, may well have disrupted scholars collections.
We know that after at least three attacks pages of books were recorded as lying on the
ground, blown about in storms (and presumably damaged drastically by damp). Books
blowing around became a figure of speech in recounting attacks (wrongfully) made by
jihadi fighters on learned Muslim settlements such as Yandoto or Kalembaina, or much
earlier at Gimbana. Zamfara scholars much later said that Muhammad Bello had taken
away, as booty, many if not all the books of the region (it was an area noted for its
learning). Did Muslim scholars opposed to the jihad forfeit their libraries? Did victory
hugely augment private collections in Sokoto, Katsina and Kano? If so, nothing is
hard to burn, but traditionally none of the pre-colonial copies were bound; they were
kept as loose sheets between two boards tied with a leather strap. But once the sheets
got loose from these boards and the wind caught them, the scattered pages would burn
readily. We have no way of calculating the extent of book losses but the danger was real,
as the 1960s burning of the emir of Kanos library in the Shahuci judicial school in
Birnin Kano testifies. Similarly, there is considerable anxiety now over how the early
nineteenth-century library of Muhammad Bello has fared since it was removed from the
palace in Sokoto in 1988; the talk is of termites and ants spoiling some books.
Book merchandising
The hypothesis here is that book importing as a business died out at an early date, being
replaced on the one hand by personal importing of single texts, and on the other by a
local copying industry. Bookselling if not the business of importing books only
revived in the nineteenth century, and such detail as we have on the local book trade
refers to this and the early colonial period.
Apart from the smaller peripatetic dealers in books and pamphlets who had no formal
shop, there were retailers who had their own area in the marketplace. Both the two
main categories of purchaser, the professional student or scholar and the government
official (with the latter being the bigger spender?) were habitually mobile, and this
allowed the book trade to be unusually centralised; for example, within the Sokoto
Caliphate, bookshops were largely confined to Kano, as indeed was the paper trade.
The waziri of Sokoto, when he spoke to me about it in June 1983, could not offhand
recall the names of any nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century booksellers or
copyists in Sokoto. Indeed, the Sokoto caliphal correspondence, preserved in the waziris
house in Sokoto and dating mainly to the 1880s and 1890s, includes a few letters in
which paper is being purchased or obtained from Kano. The question remains: were there
name was written legibly on the wrapping paper, that quality of paper must not have
been very absorbent or else an area of it was sized first. Almost all writing paper had
a watermark, hence our knowledge of the brands used.44 While writing paper was
relatively stiff, it could be folded; it was not brittle like later paper. Letters from the
waziris chancery had a distinct way of being folded, and were carried in pouches of
indigo-dyed cloth. Letters were written on the same standard size of paper as books, but
book pages were never folded. A torn page in a book could be mended by being
carefully sewed along the tear with cotton; some quite ancient books have been
repaired in this way, but I dont know of a way to date the repair without scientifically
examining the thread to see if it is the old pre-colonial tree cotton. Errors in a text
could be corrected by attaching to the page (with a thread) a small supplementary piece
of paper. Charms (laya) were also a common use of paper; prayers were written upon it,
sometimes with small twigs or leaves added. The whole packet was then folded and kept
in a small leather pouch for hanging round the neck or waist, especially of young
children. There were often many charms on a single cord.
Multiple copies of texts were probably not stocked in bookshops; instead, books were
copied on demand and thus required time to organise. Similarly, no doubt because time
was not the essence, specific books might have been ordered from Cairo. However,
more often individuals returning from pilgrimage must have brought in single copies for
their own and their friends use, in which case copies of these books probably never
reached a bookshop and therefore never attained a widespread circulation. Indeed, one
suspects that to hand over for public sale a rare book from ones own collection was
equivalent to distributing ones assets, just as today there is a clear reluctance on the
part of scholars to divulge their total book stock. Nor is there evidence of the old
Baghdadi practice of a scholar hiring a bookshop for a whole night to use as a temporary
library.45 To run a bookshop may have been rather trickier than one perhaps imagines.
Bookshops presumably provided the classics, the local favourites and best-sellers,
rather than rare or recently written works. They may have stocked, though, the
From a readers perspective, a book may be simply the part of a longer work that he
uses and needs to have a copy of in this sense, it is the paper equivalent of the
extensive quotation he may have in his head. From the authors perspective, such an
excerpt is only part of what he wrote under that title. From the perspective of the
executor of an inheritance, a book is not an indivisible whole it can be divided up
among the dead mans inheritors; a book, the executor would say, does not lose its value
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by being split up. Some scholars disagree and insist that a book is kept in its entirety
(after all, no one divides up a horse or a gown), but I think the fact that people can
countenance the division of a book into separable parts does suggest that a book need
not be considered a single whole. After all, the Holy Quran is divided into suras, and
it is the book par excellence. Similarly, many of the books by Shaykh Uthman and
Abdullahi dan Fodio consist of quotations and citations, thus providing the student
reader with a very useful selection of sentences to quote in a debate or in making a
decision. In a single work, you have a prcis of a whole library, many books in one. It
may well be that the original, whole book may not exist in any local library, the author
having himself taken the quotation from an earlier prcis. In short, one cannot tell,
merely from the presence of a quotation, that the original work in its entirety was part
of the local book stock. Since quite a few books in a collection have no beginning or
end, it is not always clear, except to the erudite, where the excerpt comes from. Classics
and standard school texts are commonplace and obvious, but a proportion remains
listed as anonymous (Bani Ulama-i) in the National Archives in Kaduna. It is a
common enough category that has confused researchers unused to the archives codes:
BU has become the archives most prolific author.
Forgeries pose problems, too. They are mainly of two kinds: books probably composed
in the nineteenth century but attributed (wrongly, or should one say optimistically?)
to a well-known author; and books wholly concocted in the twentieth century and
attributed to a nineteenth-century author. The first is more common, and open to
dispute. Frequently the text is about a contested element of Muslim life such as the
Mahdiyya or the Tijaniyya for which there is evidence that the purported author
would not in fact have written in such a manner. This often applies to texts where any
authorial name and the conventional opening sentences are absent. A common
example is a poem (against the invading Christians) attributed to the last independent
amir al-muminin, Attahiru, but internal evidence makes it clear it was not composed by
or could be, legitimated but does that make it too crucial to dismiss as a possible
invention? Should we simply leave it, saying that it may be that the story is true but not
its status as a formally authored book?
There may well be more forgeries than we know of, but one of the better known is Kanz
al-awlad, in part a history of the jihad purportedly written by Muhammad Sambo b.
Ahmed around 181819 but actually produced by a scholar in Gusau in the early 1950s.
I have seen only two copies (a private one in Kano; Kano has very close connections
to Gusau); a copy of the book has now gone into the Bayero University Library. Wazirin
Sokoto Alhaji Junaidu knew of the books existence and said it was fake; Professor MA
al-Hajj knew of it too and dismissed it on internal evidence, but recently Professor John
Hunwick has included it in his bibliography of Sokoto jihadi works as if it was authentic.
He adds it is not well regarded in Sokoto and has, for this reason, been neglected by
scholars;47 he has not, however, studied the text himself. It may yet gain a life of its
own and be cited in doctoral theses as a historical source. Otherwise, forgeries are
apparently rare. I have heard the historian DJM Muffet firmly declare an early colonial
text to be a forgery, but he had no serious evidence for saying so (except that it went
against his general argument). In general, in a culture of hand-copying (as distinct from
a bibliographers culture), a forgery has to be accepted as genuine if many copies are to
be made. Might, therefore, wide distribution be one test of a texts authenticity?
My only first-hand evidence for the culture of copying comes from the early to mid-
1960s (before xerox machines were available), when one could still order copies of
manuscripts from scribes, and the delivered manuscript would then be proof-read by
another scholar. The sums paid were very small, but everyone knew whose handwriting
was good and whose was not, and who was a really careful copyist. But the real problem
lay in ensuring that the master text from which the copy was made was good. Certain
scholars were known for never returning the manuscripts they had borrowed for
copying. Hence, I took to photographing manuscripts in the house of the books owner;
property in Kano,48 and there is a list of grain brought in to Kanos Nasarawa palace
from the emirs slave estates. These suggest an ordinary bureaucratic usage of paper,
with texts written in classical Arabic. By contrast, judicial records of the emirs court in
Kano were instituted only in the colonial period.49 Thus only a limited amount of state
material, it seems, was regularly committed to writing; the vast majority of paper was
used for books. It is possible that an allo, a wooden, reusable writing board, was used
previously for temporary records and calculations. Primarily made as exercise books for
teaching young children how to read and write the Arabic script, they were (and are)
ubiquitous and cheap. They last well, too, even if they are bulky to store (and burn
easily, it is said). But I have never seen them used as notepads; as students, we used
them to make rubutu, the tonic medicine people drink made of the ink in which sacred
words have been written. Such boards may have been sanctified in a way that paper was
not. In this context, stories of how a mallams allo boards were allowed to burn were told
to me to illustrate how deeply shocking was the behaviour of a certain notoriously
violent district head. Nonetheless, some books are sanctified, most notably the Holy
Quran it cannot be placed on the ground, nor can another book be placed on top of
it. An urban riot could be set off by a (stereotyped) rumour that a sheet of paper with
Arabic on it had been found dirtied and lying on the ground, the suspicion being that
some Christian had deliberately besmirched it and so the Christian community needed
to be drastically punished. Whatever the case, traditional paper is rarely destroyed
deliberately or even simply thrown away.
Although calligraphy was never the exquisite art form it had become in the Middle East
(I know of no public sign from nineteenth-century Nigeria, nor were the caliphal seals
elegantly complex or beautifully inscribed), nonetheless a fine book-hand for writing
was much admired. Borno hands have remained much the most distinguished in
Nigeria: Holy Qurans copied there are the most prized, and young scholars were sent
there to learn that hand (and the Quran copyists trade) their products were exported
collections. Public libraries with huge stocks of manuscript books were a late-colonial
innovation. As no waqf institutions existed in the Sokoto Caliphate unlike in North
Africa large houses (lineages) acted as centres of charity and knowledge.
The hypothesis here is that the importation of paper and the copying of (previously
imported) books on a large scale date back to the sixteenth century, though the range of
titles reproduced narrowed until the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the
revival both in the local authorship and in the local marketing of books led to an increase
in copying and book production generally. Again, much of what follows relates to this later
period, when the structure of the industry and market conditions had radically altered;
for it appears that the nineteenth-century book was relatively cheap to produce.
Paper
Quantities
Imported from Tripoli, the yearly supply in 1767 was some 2 000 reams, equivalent to
4 million folios or 80 camel loads.50 In Senegambia, paper constituted 3 per cent of
imports in 1718 but Curtin does not quote the actual quantities.51 At 230 folios to a
Quran, the Tripoli trade was enough to provide paper for some 16 000 Qurans. But
Tripoli was not, of course, the only North African source, nor was Senegambia the only
south-western one. The overall quantity imported must have been substantially greater
for West Africa taken as a whole.
Sources
Much of the nineteenth-century imported paper was of Italian manufacture, produced
specifically for the Levantine market. The crescent watermark has been common since
The size of page used for books was, I suggest, a quarter Mansuri (very close to a crown
quarto).55 Because books in West Africa were seldom written in the margins of other
books, the folio size half Mansuri was not used as it was in North Africa. An octavo
page (one-eighth Mansuri) was used for pocket prayer books. In these formats, no
decorations were usually added, either as a border around a page or as part of the title
page. Rarely was an ornamental frontispiece or tailpiece included.
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Prices
Paper
In 1805 at Sansanding on the Niger River, a ream cost 20 000 cowries. In 1861 at Tripoli
it was 12 000 a ream which, given a 100 per cent mark-up (for the costs of transport across
the Sahara, etc.), in Kano would come to 24 000 a ream. By 1910 the price in Kano
was 26 000 a ream.56 Sold by the sheet, the profit margin was considerable: 60 cowries
bought a sheet of paper, the same price as half a pound in weight of honey. A page was
10 to 15 cowries.57 In the 1820s, writing paper, on which the profit is enormous was
the first item in a list of articles most in demand in Borno58 no doubt to be used in
the export trade in Qurans. Contrary to expectations, therefore, paper seems to have
been relatively cheap throughout the nineteenth century, though because of inflation
it was even cheaper by the centurys end. Yet with a sheet of paper to sell, reported
Tomas Edward Bowdich in 1819, an inferior Moor could live a month in Kumasi.59
Books
Valuations are found in documents relating to the disposal of property at a persons
death. Thus the Madakin Kanos six books were worth only 8 000 cowries, but they
were, it seems, only part-books and common ones at that.60 How these valuations were
arrived at in the nineteenth century is not stated, but the values given for books are
unlikely to reflect very closely the current price of a new copy. If these old books were
disposed of to book dealers, or even to students, they must have undercut the market
price. Indeed, the price of books seems to have been relatively low perhaps 4 000 or
5 000 cowries was average for a standard text (or excerpt?). But a Quran might be
worth 20 000 in 1820s Borno, fine Qurans were being exported to Barbary or Egypt
and selling there for 40 or 50 dollars each.61 As letter writers, scribes were paid some
three or four times the wage of an unskilled labourer. Copyists labour must have been
rewarded in other ways.
Students
A students graduation was signalled by his completing a copy of the Quran. This was
traditionally given to his teacher, who in turn presumably sold it but not always so: a
student might buy himself a big gown and turban from the proceeds of his first Quran, says
Mahmudu Koki.62 If we assume 1 per cent of all students in any one year actually finished
copying the Quran, that implies a production of some 1 600 Qurans a year (on my student
population estimates given earlier). Borno Qurans were of a notably high quality and were
exported, and it is possible that demand for Qurans was satisfied by Bornos production.
Borno attracted students (and therefore cheap copyists?) by its specialisation in
Quranic studies. Perhaps, then, one should speak of a Borno school of calligraphy,
since handwriting was the other economic skill which students went there to learn. It
is not known which speciality started first Quranic studies or calligraphic copying.
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Professional copyists
The value of a book for sale will have depended in part on the quality of the copyists
handwriting. A scholar like Abdullahi dan Fodio so Dr ADH Bivar was told kept
his hand in by doing some copying by the light of a small oil lamp, every single evening,
whatever the circumstances. But personal copies, made by less conscientious scholars
in their own hand, will have had less resale value. The size of the standard script grew
larger as the nineteenth century wore on; the early, jihadi hands are much smaller and
neater, maybe reflecting personal, rather than professional, styles. Similarly, the various
scribes hands in the Sokoto chancery suggest that an individuals handwriting was
more fluid, less formal. But a professional script, let alone the identities of the profes-
sional copyists, remains to be established. Nor do we even know if it was always merely
a part-time occupation. As in other trades, student labour will presumably have
undercut prices for all but the finest work.63
The book trade, like religious learning, was probably also subject to certain culturally
imposed restraints. Despite being bought and sold in the marketplace, books, by virtue
of their also being religious texts, may on occasion have been less liable to direct market
forces, with alms replacing price and labour an act of piety. Indeed it seems likely that
the writing of charms subsidised scholarly work, in effect paying for the labour
expended in book production.
Other costs
Apart from paper, none of the other materials used had to be imported; some were made
by the copyists themselves. But books were not usually finished externally with any
lavishness, however lovingly the pages might be repaired inside. In short, books were
not made specifically to attract the collector.
Bindings
The finished book was not usually sewn, though the pages were enclosed within a cover
or box of two boards, usually made of goatskin stiffened by cardboard or membrane, and
tied together with a thong, as were the earliest Muslim texts. I have seen no reference
to why books were not bound in the later Middle Eastern manner, but there seems
never to have developed in West Africa a specific craft of elaborate bookbinding such
as is found in North African cities. One consequence is that a large number of texts are
incomplete, either through loss or through deliberate division of the book when appor-
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Storage
As with the bindings, so too with storage the costs were kept low. Books were packed
in specially designed goatskin leather bags (gafaka) which were sewn smooth side in to
a standard format. They could hold more than one book at a time. A special storeroom
held the bags of books, and in these conditions books deteriorated little; even dampness
does not affect the ferro-tannic inks. Furthermore, as religious books date less rapidly
than most commercial items, there was probably little problem over old stock,
especially if a common source for the market in books was old texts unwanted by the
inheritors of a dead scholar.
Substitute materials
There was apparently no suitable local material to use as a substitute for imported good-
quality white paper.
Boards
The most widely used substitute for ordinary paper was the wooden slate or board, used
as a school exercise book and no doubt also as scrap paper for trying out compositions.
Although there is no fixed size for these boards, the majority take a quarto Mansuri page
of text. The width of the board is of course limited by the girth of the tree used, and it
is possible this was one factor in helping to determine which page size became standard.
Leather
As far as I know, neither vellum nor parchment was used for books or documents,
though there were both sufficient hides and the technology available, at least in the
earlier periods, to manufacture either. (A Holy Quran written on vellum in Ceuta in
northern Morocco, however, is the oldest book in Fondo Kati and dates to AD 1198.65)
Paper made of bark was not used either, though bark cloth was available locally, if not
to an adequately high quality to compete with paper. One characteristic of paper is that
Other papers
Not all paper imported was for writing; wrapping paper was relatively common,
especially for the cloth trade in which high-value items like turbans and gowns of
beaten indigo might justify the cost of wrapping. Presumably some of this paper was
later used by mallams to make charms which did not have to be easily legible. Similarly,
such paper was used occasionally for some of the early colonial treaties.
Other materials
Small prayers were written on the edges of the large white cotton flags used in jihad, but
no large-scale inscriptions were put on them or on the later flags made of damask; no
stencils were used, either. Nor were there texts on, say, glazed tiles, as used in Middle
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Eastern buildings. The public display of texts, on walls for example, inside or on the
outside of buildings, was not a feature, either. Walls were made of clay (unlike in
Timbuktu, no cut stone was ever used) and sometimes plastered, the materials for which
could contain impurities like animal urine or dung. Oil-based paint was not readily
available and only indigo-blue and white-earth washes were used on walls.67 Hence in
the nineteenth century the paper page was the main medium for decorative work (if
any), with coloured inks rather than paint. The calculations done for divination were
drawn in sand held within a wooden tray (if in a marketplace) or simply on the ground;
the finished squares, however, might be committed to paper. I have never seen pre-
colonial maps or diagrams drawn on large sheets of paper except as reproductions of
those made specifically for European visitors; again, for simple geographical diagrams,
the sand where the discussants sat was used.68
Conclusion
This chapter shows how relatively little detailed knowledge we have of Sokotos book
culture as yet. But by writing about it here not only have I suggested how significant
a subject it is, but I trust I might also have persuaded some reader to pursue the whole
topic in depth and consider the implications of bookishness. There clearly were boom
periods first the sixteenth then the nineteenth centuries with different texts coming
to hand; different interests too. But I think overall the book trade did not work in
West Africa. For example, in 1900 there were, it seems, few if any modern books either
available to buy or in circulation in Kano books on the key Islamist themes that were
current in, say, Egypt and causing great debate amongst the scholars of the day as they
faced the new Christian colonialism. There was no waqf-financed library buying books
systematically, no bookseller importing contentious texts for an avid reading public.
There undoubtedly were well-read scholars in Sokoto and Kano, but their needs seem
If there was no systematic importation of books (but remember, there was a big book export
from 1820s Borno), then the intellectual milieu depended on individual bibliophiles or
networks. But it may have been that local scholars, in the main, saw themselves as self-
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sufficient, and their book stock adequate for their needs. The intellectually curious among
them went off to North Africa or towards Mecca, abandoning West Africa as an academic
backwater, however good a site it was for jihad. It was, after all, a long-standing tradition
to seek further education in Cairo, where a place (riwaq) had once been maintained for
students from Borno (Sokoto seems never to have established such places). Did the
local shortage of books lead to a pre-colonial version of the brain drain?
Anyone who has worked in the Nigerian university system over the last 40 years will
find echoes of this past history in the state of todays book stock. University libraries no
longer systematically buy the latest works, university bookshops have mainly closed down,
and such bookstores as do still function stock primarily school books, not the latest mono-
graphs or even advanced textbooks. This means that scholars, if they are to be up to date,
have to have collections of their own, getting books sent out to them or making trips
themselves. This results in the average author of an academic article having to write
without having first seen the latest research. These authors are stuck in an intellectual
time warp dating back to when they last had long-term access to a good library. Open
access and the internet now offer to release scholars from their time warps. When that
happens, there could be the same excitement over the latest book as Kano intellectuals
experienced some 500 years ago. But bookishness needs to be more than an elite obsession.
This was realised, I think, by Muhammad Bello and his colleagues in 1820s Sokoto, as
they sought to modernise a Bilad al-Sudan that was now more overtly Muslim, and
bring it closer to the rest of the Muslim world. Similarly, a century later in the 1930s,
young Muslims read avidly in the new literature and sciences now open to them
through books (albeit in English) which were readily available in libraries or on loan
from teachers and friends. In the last few decades, that window has half closed again as
the book market withered. Inevitably in this context, bookishness has also wilted.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This chapter is a slightly revised version of an article first published in Studia Africana, 17: 3952, Octubre 2006. We
thank the Editor for permission to re-publish it here. I would also like to thank colleagues in Sokoto and Kano who read the
original text and suggested corrections and additions.
NOTES
1 Hofheinz (2004).
2 Hofheinz (2004: 156).
3 Lydon (2004).
4 Stewart (1970: 243).
5 Denham et al. (1828, 2: 364 [1st journey]); Clapperton (1829: 198 [2nd journey]).
6 These books were chosen with care. Bello had asked for books when Clapperton said goodbye to him in 1824, but we
do not know what he wanted. The History of the Tartars under Tamerlane may have been the Shajara-i Turk by Abu l-
Ghazi Bahadur, which in a French translation was much used, some 50 years earlier, by Edward Gibbon for Chapter 54
of his Decline and Fall. Who printed the Arabic translation is not clear, but it would have been a suitable present after
Clappertons conversations on early Middle Eastern history with Bello during his previous visit. So too would a copy of
Ibn Sinas al-Qanun, given how actively involved Bello was in medicine and his interest in new approaches he wanted
the British government to post a doctor in Sokoto. Muhammad Bello was, anyway, very widely read: my Sokoto colleague,
Professor Sambo Junaidu, reminds me that Bello said he once counted the number of books he had read they came
to 20 300.
7 Clapperton (1829: 206).
8 Krek (1971). The sixteenth-century traveller Leo Africanus reported on the book trade in Morocco and Timbuktu. However,
his interest in Arabic book production in Rome, his involvement in the papacys plans for exporting Arabic books or any
other possible links of his with paper makers and printers with connections in the North African trade are more
ambiguous see the new study of him by Natalie Zemon Davis (2006). Ottoman edicts on printing are given in Atiyeh
(1995), while comments on early Italian efforts at typesetting the Quran are in Mahdi (1995); for a thorough listing, see
Abi Fars (2001). In the 1590s, the works of al-Idrisi and Euclid, for example, were printed by the Medicis for export (the
Porte having issued import licences). But Arabic translations of Euclid long preceded the advent of printing, and it is
al-Aghani (of Abu l-Faraj Ali b. al-Husain al-Isfahani) once he had a copy of it. If the story is not apocryphal, then 30
camels in alphabetical order at least sounds feasible! The 400 camels refer to the number he said he would need to
move his library were he to take up the post an emir offered him. At some 300 books per camel, he was overloading
his beasts (unless the volumes carried were mainly short books of poetry)! Pedersen (1984: 123) gives the number of
camels needed as 100, while the librarys catalogue itself took up 10 volumes. The library was finally burned by Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazna (Kraemer 1992).
12 A single camels load would suggest that the Shaykh Uthmans library at this time totalled perhaps 100 to 150 books.
The number of books a camel can carry depends, of course, on what constitutes a book a poem would be light
compared, say, to the Holy Quran (my modern manuscript copy weighs 4.5 pounds), whereas an ordinary nineteenth-
century manuscript book I have from northern Nigeria weighs some 2 pounds, including the boards that act as binding
(8 sheets = 1 ounce; 128 sheets = 1 pound). A camel can carry a total load of some 300 pounds (more than twice
an ox load), divided into two panniers or nets; four boxes containing 50 pounds of books each would allow for a driver
or other equipment. Dr Baz Lecocq tells me that, near Timbuktu, the great Kunta Cheikh Baye (d.1927) reportedly carried
his 450 books on two camels. In texts like Ibn Khallikans, it was common to estimate the size of a persons library by
the number of camel loads it took to transport it. If, perhaps, Shaykh Uthman (and the Kunta) were consciously following
this classical, scholarly trope, then the Shaykhs was a modest one-camel collection. My Sokoto colleague, Ibrahim Gandi,
suggests however that probably more than one camel was used to carry the Shaykhs books.
13 Al-Hajj (1983).
14 A notable figure in eighteenth-century Cairo, for example, was Muhammad al-Kashnawi al-Danrankawi who lodged
with al-Jabartis father and earned a mention in his history for his powers of magic. Dan Ranko no longer exists as a
town. It was a base used by Wangarawa merchants on the kola caravan route between Kano and Gonja (in what is Ghana
today), and was sacked by Muhammad Bello shortly after he sacked another, more famous scholarly town, Yandoto.
Neither town had been inclined to join the jihad. After the sacking of Yandoto, pages of broken books were seen blowing
in the wind. The Wangarawa merchants here were serious book owners in the western tradition of Timbuktu (which was
their home area), as Ivor Wilkss (1968) work on their kin in Gonja confirms.
15 Eisenstein (1979).
16 Lapidge (2006).
17 Last (196667).
18 Uthman b. Fudi (1978).
19 The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw in the Mediterranean the first world war in which the states of
the eastern end of the sea fought the western states; this conflict also involved states in the West African savannah,
where it introduced the use of guns. Echoes of the West African conflict are heard even in the contemporary plays of
Shakespeare and Marlowe; presumably London audiences recognised the references, which implies that news from
Muslim West Africa circulated quite widely.
20 See Brett (1983).
21 Bivar (1960).
22 The Yan Izala or the Society for Removal of Innovation and the Reinstatement of Tradition was the largest Wahhabi
Islamic reform movement in West Africa.
Colonial (Christian) rule witnessed a boom in Muslim religious education and scholarship.
31 Palmer (1928). In the reign of Yakubu b. Abdullahi (c.145263), the Kano Chronicler reports that the Fulani came to
Hausaland from Melle, bringing with them books on Divinity [tauhid] and Etymology [lugha]. Formerly, our doctors had,
in addition to the Koran, only the books of the Law [fiqh] and the Traditions [hadith]. Then, in 156573 it says that
the ruler Abu Bakr b. Muhammad Rumfa was the first emir to read al-Shifa of al-Qadi Iyad (d.1149) it had been
brought to Kano by Shaykh al-Tunisi in the previous reign. The emir Abu Bakr also inaugurated the reading of Jami al-
saghir, then a relatively new book by al-Suyuti (d.1505) which was brought to Kano, also in the previous reign, by Shaykh
Abd al-Salam along with copies of classics: Mudawwana by Sahnun (d.855) and a work by al-Samarkandi (d.983)
probably his major work of tafsir, Bahr al-ulum. At the end of the fifteenth century al-Maghili had brought many books
but they are not specified. At the same time, the Wangara scholarmerchant al-Zagaiti initiated the teaching in Kano
of the Mukhtasar of Khalil ibn Ishaq (he also taught the Mudawwana but he did not need a copy he knew it by heart,
says the Asl al-wangariyyin [al-Hajj 1968: 10]).
32 Africanus (1956: 468469).
33 Lavers (1979); Girard (1685).
34 Walz (1985).
35 Saad (1983: 80).
36 Saad (1983: 80).
37 Hunwick & OFahey (1995).
38 Brenner & Last (1985).
39 Last (1967a: 31).
40 Ba & Daget (1962).
41 Clapperton (1829: 224).
42 Skinner (1977).
43 Kirk-Greene (1962).
44 See Walz (1985).
45 Toorawa (2005).
46 Hiskett (1973).
47 Hunwick & OFahey (1995: 231).
48 Hiskett (1966).
49 Christelow (1994).
50 Lavers (1979); he is quoting consul Frazers report in FO 76/21.
51 Curtin (1975: 246).
52 Valentine Galvani, d.1810 ; Fratelli Galvani, for example Anton, d.1824; Andrea Galvani, d.1855.
53 Eineder (1960); Fedrigoni (1966); Walz (1985).
this time. Apparently, then, book prices in late sixteenth-century Timbuktu and late nineteenth-century Kano were
roughly comparable.
62 Koki (1977).
63 The switch to copying in Timbuktu is a reflection perhaps of the attraction Islamic schooling had for local children. Were
the schools overproducing then? The time if not the labour or cost of copying could be reduced either by putting out
different sections of the book simultaneously to different scribes for copying (a practice known in medieval Europe as
the pecia, or quire, system), or by one reader dictating the text to a group of copyists (the scriptorium system). Both
systems were used in Sokoto, but apparently it was more usual for a copyist to transcribe an entire book. In Borno, a
separate copyist put in the vowelling in coloured ink. The copy would then be proof-read and corrected. How far there
was a division of labour in West African book production is not clear nor, even, what terminology was used, in Arabic
or ajami. In Sokoto, terms like warraq were apparently not used; k.t.b. and n.s.kh. are both used for copying, while the
katib was more a scribe than a secretary.
64 Broken books, excerpts or parts of a long work, commonly occur in collections elsewhere in the Muslim world. A third
of what Shaykh Sidiya bought in Marrakesh was only parts of books (Stewart 1970), and volumes might contain parts
of two or three books. The prevalence of broken books, I suspect, was particularly high among classics in private
collections and bookshops. In this context, then, will the largest category of complete books have been those locally
composed indeed, perhaps specifically composed to overcome the problems of students having to otherwise work
only with scattered excerpts from classics? The commonness of excerpts raises the question again: what constitutes
a book? If these excerpts were used, borrowed, re-copied and sold just like books, perhaps we should consider them
as books, reissued in effect like part-works, serials and other episodic literature. If so, should we stop referring to them
as fragments or incomplete? Was bookbinding therefore unpopular because it made it impossible to split a book up
into parts? Even in the first half of the twentieth century, printed classical Arabic books in personal libraries might be
kept unbound between boards. One I have seen, a Mukhtasar printed in Cairo, was numbered 90 by the owner who
was a Native Authority official in Kano, and not a professional scholar.
65 Hofheinz (2004: 165).
66 Bloom (2001); Bosch et al. (1981).
67 Denham et al. (1828: 2).
68 Denham et al. (1828: 2).
Abi Fars HS (2001) Arabic typography: A comprehensive sourcebook. London: Saqi Books
Africanus L (1956) [Jean-Lon LAfricain] Description de lAfrique. Translated by A Epaulard. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve
Atiyeh GN (Ed.) (1995) The book in the Islamic world: The written word and communication in the Middle East. Albany, NY:
SUNY Press
Ba AH & Daget J (1962) LEmpire peul du Macina. La Haye: Mouton
Bivar ADH (1960) A dated Kuran from Borno. Nigeria Magazine 65: 199205
Bloom JM (2001) Paper before print: the history and impact of paper in the Islamic world. New Haven: Yale University Press
Bosch G, Carswell J & Petherbidge G (1981) Islamic bindings and bookmaking. Chicago: Oriental Institute, Chicago University
Boyd J (1989) The caliphs sister: Nana Asmau, 17931865: Teacher, poet & Islamic leader. London: Frank Cass
Boyd J & Mack B (1997) Collected works of Nana Asmau, daughter of Usman dan Fodiyo (17931864). East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press
Boyd J & Mack B (2000) One womans jihad: Nana Asmau, scholar and scribe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Brenner L & Last M (1985) The role of language in West African Islam. Africa 55(4): 432446
Brett M (1983) Islam and trade in the Bilad al-Sudan, tentheleventh century AD. Journal of African History 24: 431440
Browne EG (1928-29) A Literary History of Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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Christelow A (Ed.) (1994) Thus ruled Emir Abbas: Selected cases from the records of the emir of Kanos Judicial Council.
East Lansing: Michigan State University Press
Clapperton H (1829/1969) Journal of a second expedition into the interior of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo.
London: John Murray
Curtin P (1975) Economic change in pre-colonial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press
Davis NZ (2006) Trickster travels: a sixteenth century Muslim between worlds. New York: Hill & Wang
Denham D, Clapperton H & Oudney D (1828) Narrative of travels & discoveries in northern and central Africa in the years
1822, 1823 and 1824 [1st Journey] (3rd edition, esp. Vol. II). London: John Murray
Eineder G (1960) The ancient paper mills of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and their watermarks. Hilversum: Paper
Publications Society
Eisenstein EL (1979) The printing press as an agent of change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ersoy O (1963) XVIII. ve IX. Yuzyillarda Turkiye' Kagit. Ankara: Ankara niversitesi Basimevi
Fedrigoni A (1966) LIndustria Veneta della Carta dalla seconda dominazione austriaca all' unita d'ItaIia. Torino: ILTE
Girard (1685) LHistoire chronologique du Royaume de Tripoly de Barbarie. Paris, Bibliothque Nationale
Goody JR (1968) Restricted literacy in northern Ghana. In JR Goody (Ed.) Literacy in traditional societies. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
al-Hajj MA (1968) A seventeenth century chronicle on the origins and missionary activities of the Wangarawa. Kano Studies
I(4): 742
al-Hajj MA (1983) Some diplomatic correspondence of the Seifuwa Mais of Borno with Egypt, Turkey and Morocco. In B Usman
& N Alkali (Eds) Studies in the history of pre-colonial Borno. Zaria: Northern Nigerian Publishing Company
Hiskett M (1966) Materials relating to the cowry currency of the western Sudan. SOAS Bulletin, 29(1): 132141
Hiskett M (1973) The sword of truth: The life and times of the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio. New York: Oxford University Press
Hofheinz A (2004) Goths in the land of the blacks: A preliminary survey of the Kati Library in Timbuktu. In SS Reese (Ed.)
The transmission of learning in Islamic Africa. Leiden: Brill
Hunwick JO & OFahey RS (Eds) (1995) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of Central Sudanic Africa (Vol. 2). Leiden: Brill
Ibn Khallikan (184271) Wafayat al-ayan. Translated by M de Slane. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain & Ireland
Junaidu SW (2007) Research methodology among scholars of the Sokoto Caliphate before the British colonial invasion of
1903. Unpublished paper. Sokoto: Usmanu Danfodiyo University
Kane O (2003) Muslim modernity in postcolonial Nigeria: A study of the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement
of Tradition. Leiden: Brill
Kirk-Greene AHM (Ed.) (1962) Barths travels in Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press
Koki M (1977) Kano malam/Mahmudu Koki: Edited by Neil Skinner. Zaria, Nigeria : Ahmadu Bello University Press
Kraemer JL (1992) Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam (2nd edition). Leiden: Brill
Krek M (1971) Typographia Arabica. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Library
164
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 11
This chapter began as a comparative study of Muslim womens traditional education in the
Maghrib, stretching geographically to include Morocco and northern Nigeria, reflecting
long historical connections. The reason for interest in this topic was the demonstrated
linkages between historic Mauritania (including much of contemporary southern
Morocco) and the Islamic intellectual communities of northern Nigeria, indicated in a
letter written by nineteenth-century Nana Asmau in Nigeria to a Mauritanian scholar,
with whom she was evidently well acquainted.1 These connections were made by members
of the Sufi Qadiriyya brotherhood in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.2 Sufi
devotees were constantly going to and fro between Hausaland and Cairo or Fez and
bringing back accounts of wonderful visions experienced by saintly personalities in the
metropolises. Uthman dan Fodio (the Shehu) had cordial relations with Shaykh al-
Mukhtar al-Kunti, the leader of a Sufi community centred around Timbuktu, who also
had visions.3 People in contemporary Fez know the Fodio family and easily speak of
their many written works, while the Tijaniyya brotherhood brings many from Nigeria
to Morocco.4 Nigeria is also connected to Morocco through the Sufi Tijaniyya broth-
erhood, a more recent moving force in Nigerian experience. Many Tijani adherents in
northern Nigeria make pilgrimages to Fez, where al-Tijanis tomb is in the medina.5
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 165
Islamic education in the Maghrib
Recent studies affirm previous perspectives on womens activist roles in the region,
especially with regard to education.6 Mauritanian womens responsibility for educating
young children echoes the situation of nineteenth-century Muslim women in northern
Nigeria.7 It remains the same for contemporary families in northern Nigeria, tempered
by the addition of daily education outside the home, divided into Islamic and non-
Islamic formal education.8 In addition to providing fundamental education for children
they raise, Muslim women in both regions have long been known as teachers of adults
in both regions, and significant scholars in their own right. Mauritanian women appear
to have kept pace with those of the Fodio family in northern Nigeria in terms of
educating both young and old, and producing sufficient numbers of their own scholarly
works to generate materials that became part of a growing canon of works for scholars
who followed.9 Thus, the attempt to uncover a canon of works used by Muslim women
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The Quran is the foundation of both Islamic thought and literacy. It is impossible to
imagine Islamic education without the memorisation of the Quran, which begins a
Muslim childs education. Islamic education continues to the equivalent of the wests
postgraduate level through a complex programme of courses including a wide range of
topics like the natural and physical sciences, history, geography, sociology, medicine
and mathematics, often at renowned institutions like al-Azhar University in Cairo and
the Qarawiyyin madrasa in Fez.10 As library holdings in Mauritania demonstrate, more
advanced fields of study included a multitude of topics, such as Quranic sciences, Arabic
language, mysticism (Sufi literature), jurisprudence, scientific manuals (including
medicine, astrology and mathematics), general literaturehistorical accounts (genealogies,
biographical dictionaries, chronologies, pilgrimage memoirs), political material[and]
general correspondence.11 Nana Asmaus nineteenth-century collection demonstrates
comparable breadth.
Similarly, in Fez and Meknes women run elementary schools for traditional Islamic
education, and Sufi women scholars may opt to continue their post-secondary
education in traditional programmes of study rather than at the western-oriented
university.16 In addition, it is not uncommon for those who are more immersed in tradi-
tional life to meet regularly (once or twice a week) in study groups at a local zawiya for
the discussion of a Quranic passage or other pertinent commentary on contemporary
issues. In each case the zawiya gathering is led by a woman qualified to teach, give a
sermon and answer questions.17
Even apart from formal systems of learning, the idea of the written word preserved in
the book is revered in Muslim cultures. The dual founding precepts of Islam the
primacy of the pursuit of knowledge and the confirmation of equity guide attitudes,
and make womens scholarship a likely proposition in cultures that have not been
overwhelmed by patriarchal limitations. Even in such cultures, womens insistence
upon their rights as set forth in the Quran motivates them to pursue their intellectual
activities.18 Furthermore, this is not a new concept. Evidence from tenth-century
Andalusia indicates that girls were attending schools with boys then, and women were
writing; Wallah, princess-poet, was educated in classes including both sexes.19
Traditional influences
The bulk of this study involves attention to works in Nana Asmaus collection, which
include poetic works in large categories. Those works influenced by the Quran and the
Sunna include mnemonic guides to facilitate memorisation of the Quran, stories based
on the Sunna, elegies, and poems about medicines of the Prophet. Historical works include
influences from the sira and eulogies. Works inspired in a Sufi context reflect khalwa
and dhikr experience, an account of Sufi women, and panegyric. Most of these reflect
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 167
The dual founding precepts of collaborative creativity, but several works best exemplify the collaborative technique
Islam the primacy of the pursuit with members of the community, and the reworking of poems that were commonly
of knowledge and the confirmation known in the region, some of which are directly related to tenth-century manuscripts,
of equity guide attitudes and influenced by thirteenth-century panegyric, or focused on Abbasid concepts of state.
make womens scholarship a likely
Nearly all Asmaus works testify to direct influence by earlier works; all of them can be
proposition in cultures that have not
understood in the context of her Islamic education, steeped as it was in study of the
been overwhelmed by patriarchal
Quran and the Sunna. Thus, a canon of works represents not a static, preserved
limitations.
collection of old works, but a vital collection of materials that includes both the classics
and contemporary compositions inspired by both earlier and contemporary works. A
single manuscript represents but a moment in the continued variation of materials used
for study. Some of these new creations, in turn, became part of a new, ever-changing
canon of works in a fluid context of learning.
Beyond examples from Nana Asmaus works, attention to the materials in use in the
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
region indicates that the exchange of poems and treatises was not only common but
also necessary to the advancement of scholarship in Islamic communities. At this point
the definition of canon becomes more problematic, because written materials are of
only secondary importance to intellectual advancement in Sufi circles. Indeed, in Fez,
Sufi scholars express reticence about relying on the written word, or publishing.
Nana Asmaus writings clarify that her education, like that of others of her level of
learning, included the study and imitation of classical works as well as collaborative
activity among her family members and peers. Her education must have followed the
traditional patterns of learning evidenced for others in the region, from Mauritania and
Mali to Kano, as her written works reflect familiarity with the topics of such a
programme of study. Subsequently, her own written works became part of the corpus of
works used in educating, especially in the education of women in the Sokoto Caliphate.
Alhaji Umaru (b.1858 in Kano) knew of Nana Asmau, and commented in his writings
that she was well known in the region.20 Umaru began Quranic school at the age of
seven and spent five years learning the Quran and Arabic literacy. At the age of 12 he
began a programme of advanced learning with several different teachers that was to
continue for 21 years, ending in 1891. The areas of study he pursued included Islamic
religion, history, law and Arabic language, as well as two years devoted to Quranic
compact mnemonic device for the teaching of the Quran. Any qualified teacher would
have been able to unpack each chapter title, teaching the entire chapter over one or
more lessons. Asmau wrote this poem in all three major local languages Arabic,
Fulfulde and Hausa obviously intending it to have wide audience appeal.24 This works
value is its efficiency in guiding an organised study of the Quran for students at both
beginning and advanced levels. Thus, while it is not to my knowledge based on an
earlier piece, its value in Islamic formal education is clear.
In Tanbih al-ghafilin (The Way of the Pious, 1820) Asmau has used her brother Bellos
Infaqul al-Maisur25 as a model for a discussion of the Shehus intellectual focus: his
teaching methods and materials.26 This work is imitative of the Sunna, and would have
been familiar to anyone raised in the tradition of the hadith. Another such work is Asmaus
Godaben Gaskiya (The Path of Truth [Hausa], 1842), which advises listeners to follow
the path of right behaviour, warning explicitly against sin by describing the pains of hell
and explaining the rewards of heaven, as each is set forth in the Quran. Thus, it is also
imitative of the Sunna, derived directly from the Quran,27 as is Sharuddan Kiyama
(Signs of the Day of Judgment [Hausa], n.d.). In the latter, Asmau outlines in graphic
detail the punishments of hell as they are described in the Quran. In addition, this
work allows Asmau to draw a metaphorical parallel between the price of sin and the
cost of disobedience to local authority. The sharia of the caliphate enforced behaviour
through statutory punishment, and Asmau chose to impress upon the masses the
importance of obedience at all levels, from civil to spiritual.
Perhaps the most frightening of her works outlining the perils of hell is Hulni-nde (Fear
This [Fulfulde], n.d.). Written in Fulfulde, it was not meant for the masses, but instead was
addressed to her clan. The works origin is in a poem by Muhammad Tukur; Asmau
added the takhmis. Asmau was also familiar with the Shehus sermon on the fear of hell,
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 169
which Bello later incorporated into his own Infaqul al-maisur surat al-ikhlas. In each case,
these works were demonstrations of the authors familiarity with the Qurans descrip-
tions of hell. They are also implicit examples of collaborative work by the authors.
Several of Asmaus works are in the classic Arabic poetic mode of elegy; they focus on
aspects of character that would be familiar in studies of the Sunna and hadith. These
include elegies for those well known, like her brother the caliph, Muhammad Bello, as
well as for individuals of no historic note. The latter is exemplified by Asmaus poem
Alhinin Mutuwar Halima (Elegy for Halima [Hausa], 1844), in which she comments on
the virtues of this ordinary woman, a neighbour, who is remembered especially for her
patience and mediatory skills among family members.28 In her 61 collected works,
Asmau includes 15 elegies, and three more that may be considered in this category:
two mourn the loss of Aisha, a close friend, and one, written the year after an elegy for
him, is a deeply felt commemoration of Bellos character. It should be noted that in her
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remembrance of her brother the caliph, Asmau noted none of his political or historical
achievements. Instead she outlined the moral and ethical qualities that distinguished
him as a person who followed the Sunna with his heart.
Asmaus Tabshir al-ikhwan (Medicine of the Prophet [Arabic], 1839) reflects immersion
in the hadiths. Written in Arabic, it is meant to be appreciated by scholars, especially
those who specialised in tibb an-nabi, which is understood to be the religiously oriented,
highly spiritualhealing system of MadinaAll the hadiths dealing with medicine and
related subjects are presentedas an inseparable part of the larger body of the traditions
of the Prophet, hence considered genuine and infallible.29 This work, like many of her
other ones, reflects comparable works by others of her clan. The Shehu mentioned that
he felt medical treatment with verses of the Quran was Sunna (in his Ihya al-Sunna
[Revival of the Sunna]), and his brother Abdullahi wrote about the conduct of physi-
cians and the procedures they should follow (in his 1827 Masalih al-insan al-mutaalliqa
bi al-adyan [Benefits for Human Beings Related to Religions] and Diya al-qawaid wa
nathr al-fawaid li-ahl al-maqasid [The Rules for Spreading the Benefits for the Peoples
Goals]). But as with other works, it was her brother Bello who most influenced Asmau in
this piece on medicine. He was noted among writers throughout the Bilad al-Sudan as
an authority on medicines.30 Among Bellos 10 books on medicine is his Talkhis al-maqasid
al-mujarrada fil adwiya al-farida (Summations of Objective Unique),31 a summation of
al-Kastallanis (b.1448 Cairo, d.1517 Mecca) fifteenth-century book on religiously
oriented healing. Bellos other works on medicine included one focused on eye diseases
(Tibb al-hayyun [Remedies for Eye Disease]), purgatives (al-Qual al-sana fi wujuh al-taliyan
wal-tamashshi bil-sana) and piles (al-Qual al-manthur fi bayan adwiya illat al-basur
[Remedies for Piles]). In 1837, in his old age, he wrote Tibb al-Nabi (Medicines of the
Prophet), a treatise on metaphysical medicine following a visit by Egyptian scholar and
Qadiri Sufi Qamar al-Din, who passed his medical knowledge on to Bello.32 In addition
to these works, Asmau also cites Muhammad Tukur as a source for her own work. Tukur
was encouraged by Bello to write a 22 000-word book in 1809, Qira al-ahibba fi bayan
Historical influences
Another classic Arabic poetic genre, sira (biography of the Prophet), is evident in
Asmaus Filitage/Wakar Gewaye (The Journey [Fulfulde/Hausa], 1839, 1865)
concerning the Shehus campaigns of reform and Begore (Yearning for the Prophet
[Hausa], n.d.). In the first, Asmau draws clear parallels between the nineteenth-
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century campaign of the Shehu in reforming Islam and that of the Prophet in estab-
lishing Islam in the seventh century. In the second, Asmau focuses on aspects of the
life of the Prophet that can be easily compared with the Shehus life.35
Tabbat Hakika (Be Sure of Gods Truth, 1831) harks back to the Abbasid concept of the
state (c.7501258), which was the subject of books by Asmaus father, the Shehu
(Bayan Wujub [Communication of What is Necessary Concerning the Hijira], 1806),
uncle Abdullahi (Diya al-Hukkam [The Light for Governors], 1806) and brother Bello
(al-Gaith [Explanation of the Requirements for the Upright Imam], 1821). Bellos work
parallels the seventeenth-century work of the historian Naima (1687) with identical
wording concerning the neo-Platonic concept of the Circle of Equity, which confirms
the need for royal authority.36 Asmaus creation relies on the technique of takhmis, in
which she used her fathers work in couplets, adding three lines to each couplet to
create a new poem whose running rhyme is the phrase tabbat hakika (be sure of Gods
Truth). The aim of the work is the juxtaposition of earthly and divine truth: truth v.
Truth. This functions to raise the metaphorical meaning of the contents to a spiritual
level, reminding both listeners and the leader that there is always a higher power than
the mortal authority figure who rules.37
In addition to Tabbat hakikas focus on the need for rulers to keep in mind divine law,
this poems collaborative nature demonstrates the interdependence practised by Islamic
scholars in creating works that are now regarded as having only one author. If Asmau
based her poem on her fathers poem in couplets and created a new work in quintains,
whose poem is it? A bookseller in Fez showed me many old works of hadith and fiqh, all
attributed to male authors. When I asked if it were possible to find works by women he
said it was not, but added that that did not mean that women did not write. He insisted
that it was quite common for women to compose, but for proprietys sake they would
never sign their own names; they would sign their husbands names instead.38
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 171
A bookseller in Fez showed me Sufi works
many old works of hadith and fiqh,
all attributed to male authors. When
At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries Sufi traffic
I asked if it were possible to find
between Hausaland in northern Nigeria, Fez and Cairo was common. Not only would
works by women he said it was not,
devotees in Hausaland be familiar with the Qadiriyya brotherhood, but the newly
but added that that did not mean formed Tijaniyya brotherhood (c.1780) affirmed a linkage with Fez, where Ahmad al-
that women did not write. He Tijani is buried in the medina. The Fodio clans affiliation with Qadiriyya Sufism was
insisted that it was quite common pervasive. In addition to Asmaus involvement in mysticism, the Shehus wife Aisha
for women to compose, but for was a devout mystic, and his wife Hauwa and her daughter Fadima regularly went into
proprietys sake they would never retreat.39 Early in his education the Shehu studied Ibn Arabis Meccan Revelations (al-
sign their own names; they would Futuhat al-makkiyya, c.1238).
sign their husbands names instead. Asmaus Mimsitare (Forgive Me, 1833) is written in Fulfulde, thus indicating that it was
not intended as a teaching tool for the larger Hausa-speaking audience, but rather was
focused toward the Fodio clan. This work, along with Tawassuli Ga Mata Masu
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Her later work, Mantore di Dabre (Remembrance of the Shehu [Fulfulde], 1854), is
modelled on a work written by the Shehu early in his life, perhaps as early as age 10, in
1765. That poem, Afalgimi (Fulfulde), is a simple Sufi litany, whose style she
copiedfrom the Shehu (Mantore di Dabre v.10) nearly a century later. Both works
appeal to God for strength in following the Sunna and generosity. Asmaus imitation
of her fathers early work is meant as an expression of honour to him, following the
Arabic poetic tradition of imitating another authors style.
The only poem in which Asmau mentions her health is one that is clearly in a Sufi
context. A mere dozen lines, this piece was untitled but was given a working title in trans-
lation: Thanksgiving for Recovery (1839). Although no other known poems concerning
recovery exist, this one is linked in context and tone with one by Rabia al-Adawiya of
Basra, the eighth-century Sufi of renown. Rabias poem concerns praying all night and
fasting in appeal for the healing of her broken wrist. In Asmaus work on this same
topic she indicates both a reliance on classical sources and creativity in the Sufi mode.
Asmaus Sufi Women was written with the aim of endowing with respectability the
Muslim women of the Sokoto Caliphate, both members in long standing and new
converts. The basis of the work was a prose work by Muhammad Bello, Kitab al-nasihah
([Book of Advice], 1835), which he asked Asmau to translate into Hausa and Fulfulde
al-Sulami.
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 173
Examples abound of the close collaborative bond among several generations of Fodios,
and their reliance on classical works.
Asmaus Kiran Ahmada (In Praise of Ahmada [Hausa], 1839) is a panegyric to the
Prophet in the form known as madih, which functions to provide an outlet for
emotional needs in worship; prophetic panegyric has long been associated with
Sufism.46 Asmau would have been familiar with panegyrics to the Prophet, which were
well known by the thirteenth century, especially al-Busiris Burda (The Cloak), al-
Fazazis al-Ishriniyyat (The Twenties), al-Lakhmis al-Qasaid al-witriyya (Superogatory
Odes) and al-Tawzaris Simt al-huda (The Necklace of Guidance), all of which were well
known in the region. Asmaus emulation of the subjects and styles of these works is
evident in her own poems, so it is known that she was familiar with them.47 Another
example of panegyric is Asmaus Mantore Arande (Remembrance of the Prophet
[Fulfulde], 1843). In this work she selected details of the Prophets life that could be
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paralleled with those of the Shehu, as she did in Yearning for the Prophet.
Collaboration
Fainna maa al-usrin yusra (So Verily [Fulfulde], 1822)(see page 164) is a prime example
of collaborative authorship between Nana Asmau and her brother Muhammad Bello,
to whom she was very close. Her poem is a response to an acrostic poem left for her by
Bello as he headed into battle. Each bears the verse fainna maa al-usrin yusra (Quran
94: 5) as the acrostic that runs down the length of their 14 lines, marking the first letter
of each line. Bellos poem was written as comfort to a worried sister; hers was composed
as a prayer for victory and his safe return. While these works bear no known relation to
earlier classical poems, the fact of their close collaboration indicates a style that is
representative of Arabic poetry.
Asmaus Gawakuke maunde (The Battle of Gawakuke [Fulfulde], 1856) is also highly
collaborative. Bello described this battle, as did al-Hajj Said, a follower of al-Hajj
Umar, and Asmau would have known those works. Despite its apparent historical
theme, this work is actually an elegy describing the character of Bello, his baraka,
charismatic leadership, and miracle working, setting him in the context of Sufi
devotion.48 By combining these styles and addressing a topic already covered by other
poets of her time, Asmau creates a work of wide appeal at the same time that she paints
a political figure with particular Islamic colours.
Contemporary Kano
Sule and Starratts study of educated women in Kano demonstrates that womens
education is a widespread urban phenomenon.49 They discuss the education of women
who came of age during the mid-twentieth century. The pattern of early learning was
My own experience in close association with women of the Kano palace affirmed that
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learning for children begins at age four and continues in both the Quranic and western
mode, as they divided their days between the two schools. There are many options for
secondary school, ranging from the School for Arabic Studies to western schools. It is
at this stage that women, who marry young, appear to fall away from education, but
their retreat into the private milieu of domesticity does not mark the end of education
for them. Private tutoring is common and easily suited to a life with domestic demands
that militate against sitting in class away from the home. In the 1970s and 1980s, the
Kano state government instituted a programme of adult education classes throughout
the region. Classes were held during the day and at night to allow for wide attendance.
The curriculum was broad, including literacy and numeracy, religious knowledge,
childcare and hygiene, and crafts for entrepreneurial skills. At the same time, in the
palace several of the emirs wives, with teacher-training certificates themselves, were
engaged in tutoring adult women from the royal community and from outside the
palace. One of them also established a small primary school class for children in the
palace who were unable to attend a formal school. In the trend toward Islamiyya
schools replacing Quranic schools, Helen Boyles study in Kano notes that the gender
ratio favours girls over boys, 2 to 1.52 It appears that women in northern Nigeria take
very seriously the admonition to seek knowledge, even unto China.
Contemporary Morocco
Several studies of women and education in Morocco have focused on the extent to which
girls and women are integrated into public school settings where the genders are mixed.53
In each case the studies concern the role of literacy as a gauge of empowerment for
women functioning in changing socio-economic roles. But none discusses the role and
extent of traditional education among women especially Sufi learning in Morocco. It
is likely that the women who attend zawiya discussions on a regular basis, in villages
throughout Morocco, have studied works similar to those outlined for Kano whether
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 175
Beyond the collection of written in oral or written form.54 More research is needed to examine the scholarly background
documents, investigation of oral of these women and investigate the materials they studied. If the cross-fertilisation of
sources is especially central to an scholarship that appears to be evident for the Maghrib holds, then it may be possible to
understanding of scholarship in Sufi determine the sources most common to scholarship in the region. Also, it is important
circles. Many Sufis in Morocco note to seek further evidence of correspondence between the regions, as shown by Asmaus
that the most important material is letter to the Mauritanian scholar.
written on the heart, not on paper
In addition to written documents, orally transmitted works are central to an explanation
where it can be destroyed.
of the works upon which Muslim women scholars in the Maghrib have relied. Helen
Boyles analysis devotes a great deal of space to the concept of the body as a site of
cultural production, noting the value of memorisation of the Quran in instilling
cultural values and understanding. This is particularly relevant to the types of study
found among Sufi groups in the region. In discussions at the home of Shaykh Moulay
Hassan and his wife in Fez, adherents of a rural Sufi teacher, noted that the works they
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were taught were conveyed orally. When asked about writing them down, their teacher
explained it was preferable to memorise them. Other Sufis discussed the perspective
that the written word was a crutch beyond which one needed to move in internalising
the word of God. In attempting to understand a canon of works pertinent to women
scholars, the importance of the spoken, memorised word cannot be ignored.
Conclusion
In her corpus of works Nana Asmau relied on both her own educational background
in classical Islamic works and her familiarity with works by her kinsfolk for the creation
of her own poems. Many of her poems are collaborative works, which honour the
poems of her contemporaries by reworking them to her own effect. Echoing a tradi-
tional programme of study, her works include descriptions of the Quran, panegyric,
elegy, and biography of the Prophet. Asmau transforms some of these into works more
pertinent to her own context: her biography of the Shehu parallels her biography of the
Prophet; her description of the Prophets endeavours selects as its focus events that she
parallels in her description of the Shehus campaigns. Asmaus Sufi devotion is also a
formative feature of her works, which include litanies and dhikr. Her poem on
medicines of the Prophet reflects traditional works on religious-based healing, and her
work on Sufi women not only imitates the classic tenth-century work of the same name
by al-Sulami, but also weaves into it the names of local women whose status she
elevates by their association with historical women of note.
works, created on the foundations of earlier works, become classics for subsequent
generations, joining the ranks of those that have heretofore constituted the canon.
Further fieldwork is needed to investigate the kinds of classical works that constitute
the basis for contemporary scholarship.
NOTES
1 See Welcome to the Mauritanian scholar in Boyd and Mack (1997: 282283). For subsequent references to Asmaus
works, unless otherwise cited, see relevant pages in this source.
2 Asmaus easy correspondence with the mysterious Mauritanian scholar (Alhaji Ahmed Muhammad al-Shinqiti) implies
a longer-standing network of correspondences and familiarity that likely date to at least one if not several previous
generations, which would put the connection well into the eighteenth century. More work on the Shehus writings needs
to be done to demonstrate this linkage.
3 Hiskett (1973: 6364).
4 The erudition of the Shehu Uthman dan Fodio, his brother Abdullahi, his son Caliph Muhammad Bello and his daughter
Nana Asmau are especially well known, even when their writings are not available.
5 Ahmad al-Tijani, b.1737 southern Algeria, d.1815 Fez, Morocco, established order in 1780.
6 See Mack (2004).
7 Compare Lydons (2004) observations and those in works on Nana Asmau see Boyd (1989); Mack & Boyd (2000);
and Boyd & Mack (1997).
8 This was my experience during fieldwork in Kano, Nigeria, 197981. In an article in 2005, Margot Badran notes a similar
pattern (Liberties of the faithful, al-Ahram Weekly, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/743/fe2.htm.)
9 Lydon (2004: 48, 68).
10 Fourteenth-century Ibn Khalduns Muqaddima gives a sense of the breadth of traditional Islamic learning.
11 Lydon (2004: 62).
12 Sule & Starratt (1991: 36) see note 6 for more sources on programmes of study and their appendix, which includes
annotated descriptions of the books studied by contemporary Kano women.
13 Galadanci (1971), cited in Sule & Starratt (1991: 37).
14 Sule & Starratt (1991: 36).
15 Note the appendix in Sule & Starratt (1991), which includes a list of traditional books regularly studied by these Kano
women scholars.
16 In fieldwork in Fez and Meknes (2002, 2003) I visited these schools and worked with a Sufi woman who had completed
secondary school and was immersed in advanced Sufi studies in the medina in Fez.
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 177
17 It was my experience that no matter how small the village, these groups of women were devoted to their study sessions:
in Tiznit, in south-west Morocco, women meet once a week, while in Tamagroute, at the end of the Marrakesh road,
they meet twice a week for sessions of several hours.
18 See Badran (Liberties of the faithful, al-Ahram Weekly, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/743/fe2.htm) for the
confirmation of this perspective, which is also evident throughout my own field notes from Kano in the late 1970s.
19 Nykl (1946: 72), cited in el-Hajj (1996).
20 Pilaszewicz (2000: 86).
21 Pilaszewicz (2000: 1011).
22 Six other of Asmaus sisters also wrote: Hadiza, Habsatu, Fadima, Safiya, Maryam and Khadija. Their manuscripts are
housed in the familys private collections.
23 Hiskett (1975: 44).
24 It was written in 1829, 1838 and 1850, respectively, appealing (chronologically) to Fulfulde speakers, then the Hausa majority,
and finally to Arabic speakers.
25 This title is rendered in English only with difficulty. Neither Jean Boyd nor Murray Last was comfortable with an English
translation. Last (1967: xxviiixxxiii, l) refers to this manuscript as the most detailed and factual account of the jihad
available. Its availability, however, is moot, considering that several of the Arabic manuscripts of it are in private hands,
and the translations by (colonial Resident) EJ Arnett (1920) are unreliable. Boyd adds that: i) Bello gives detailed accounts
of the battles they fought on the Gewaye (journey) which need maps. They are not present and without them the text is
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unfathomable; ii) Arnett did not dissect Bellos words out of quotations from other texts; and iii) It was printed in 1922
on poor paper which crumbled to powder in time. There is also a Hausa translation of Infakul Maisuri, trans. Sidi Sayudi
and Jean Boyd, Sokoto History Bureau, 1974 (personal communication, 1 October 2006).
26 Sections include attention to: barriers dividing people from paradise; discussion of dangerous habits; redeeming habits;
and distinguishing features of those who follow the Sunna.
27 In addition, Asmaus sense of her authority is clear; she remarks that, I, daughter of the Shehu, composed this song
you should follow her (v.126).
28 Boyd & Mack (1997: 195196).
29 Abdalla (1981: 16).
30 Abdalla (1985).
31 127 pages in length.
32 Last (1967), cited in Boyd & Mack (1997: 100). Also noted here is that it was characteristic of both Bello and his sister
Asmau to couch their works in terms of benefit to the masses, a deviation from the focus of classical writers on the
topic, who composed their works as gifts to royalty.
33 Abdalla (1981: 158) notes that Tukurs sources for this work are not practitioners from the high period of Islamic
civilization, but some lesser known Sufis and theologians who flourished in the medieval period.
34 the title translates as The means of helping brothers toward legitimate social relationships with women (Alhaji Shaykh
Ahmed Lemu, personal communication, 21 September 1994). Abdalla says in the Maawanat al-ikhwan fi muasharat
al-niswan emphasis is placed on material media for the treatment of various illnesses and as aphrodisiacs (1981: 163).
As far as we know there is no translation of the work (Boyd & Mack 1997: 101).
35 Boyd & Mack (1997: 133, 304).
36 See Boyd & Mack (1997: 4546). Abdullahi emphasises the role of a leader in administering justice to the disenfranchised,
while the Shehu affirms the role of scholars in enjoining truth, the Sunna, and justice.
37 See Boyd & Mack (1997: 46n) for a discussion of the controversy concerning authorship of this poem.
38 This is perhaps the most extreme form of collaboration.
39 Hiskett (1973: 6169); Boyd & Mack (1997: 60).
40 Hiskett (1973: 64).
41 Boyd & Mack (1997: 6872).
42 Boyd & Mack (1997: 133134) indicate a degree of collaboration that makes tracing an original difficult.
43 Hiskett (1973: 10).
44 Boyd & Mack (1997: 84).
45 The Boyd & Mack (1997: 84) citations include two works by al-Khansa, one cited in Arberry (1965: 38) and one translated
by Wormhoudt (n.d.: 96). See also Waddy (1980: 70).
46 Abdullahi wrote such panegyrics to the Prophet, and the Shehu wrote Maamaare (In Praise of the Prophet) in 1805, which
Isa, Asmaus brother, translated into Hausa in 1864. See also Hiskett (1975: 43).
REFERENCES
Abdalla I (1981) Islamic medicine and its influence on traditional Hausa practitioners in northern Nigeria. PhD thesis, University
of Wisconsin
Abdalla I (1985) The ulama of Sokoto in the nineteenth century: A medical view. In B DuToit & I Abdalla (Eds) African healing
strategies. New York: Trado-Medic Books
Agnaou F (2004) Gender, literacy, and empowerment in Morocco. New York: Routledge
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
MUSLIM WOMEN SCHOLARS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: MOROCCO TO NIGERIA 179
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180
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 12
The massive collection of manuscripts produced in West Africa has once again
dispelled the notion that Africans were incapable of intellectual work of reading,
writing and scholarly endeavour before the impact of European colonialism and
missionary education. While this dense corpus of writing is a cultural and intellectual
legacy that can be used in a variety of ways, we believe it must be claimed as an
expression of Africas intellectual heritage and renewal. In this chapter we begin by
briefly sketching the genesis of our research project. We then share some of our
prefatory readings, describing the content of selected manuscripts, before exploring
possible trajectories for future research through a closer reading of two specific texts.
Our excurses into the manuscript corpus divides the material into works of general
interest (those that cover a broad range of subjects) and legal texts (more specifically,
legal responsa or fatawa). We begin with the former but pay more attention to the latter,
asking what value the legal corpus may have as a source for historical enquiry.
There is presently very little research on the manuscripts for what they can tell us about
the social history of that part of Africa over the past centuries: from the fifteenth
century when Timbuktu emerged as a centre of learning through to the change of rule
from the Mali to the Songhay Empires, through the Moroccan invasion in the late
sixteenth century to French colonial domination in the nineteenth century, and from
independence to the present.
etc. but also to familiarise ourselves with their general import, so as to select specific
texts for extended study.
Manuscript 516 (Catalogue Vol. 1: 287) from the Mamma Haidara collection, for
example, provides interesting insight into the socio-political culture of the region. It is
a tract of folios written by the reformist Abdullahi dan Fodio (d.1829), entitled Diya
al-siyasat wa fatawa al-nawazil (The Illumination of Legislative Politics and Verdicts on
Events). Divided into several sections, it discusses apostasy, highway robbery, hostile
combatants and heretics. The manuscript also deals with the issue of politics, which it
classifies as either oppressive or just. An outstanding aspect of this work is a deeply
philosophical discussion on the six universal elements necessary for existence, that is,
life, dignity, wealth, intellect, religion and deterrents from committing sin. Many other
interesting themes are also to be found.
Drinking cow-milk and mixing the powder from a burned cow horn with food or drink
increases sexual potencyFor abundant sexual activity and sexual climax a man must
drink the dried, pulverised testicles of a bull. If a man suffers from impotence he must
take the nail of a cocks right leg, burn it and fumigate himself with the smoke and
he will be curedThe dried, pulverised penis of a lizard placed tenderly into honey
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then licked will let a man experience full sexual desire and satisfaction and will
increase his sperm countTo make his wife love him intensely, the husband should
wipe both his and his wifes eyebrows and hands with the gall bladder of a foxBy
wiping his soles with the head of a bat, a man will see wonderful things when having
sexIf a man rubs the blood from a cocks comb onto his penis then has sexual
intercourse with his wife, she will only [want to] have sex with him. The blood of a
slaughtered black chicken mixed with honey and rubbed on the head of the penis
followed by intercourse causes the woman to have an orgasm to the point of madness
due to the intensity4If the husband paints his penis and surrounding area with the
gall bladder of a male goat he will be extremely powerful during sexual intercourse.5
In order to strengthen his penis [that is, cure himself from erectile dysfunction] and
enjoy sexual intercourse, the husband must recite the following Quranic verses:
Allah is the One Who created you from [your state of] weakness and made out of
the weakness strength [Quran 30: 54]; Say [O Muhammad] O you disbelievers
[Quran 109]; and Li Ila fi Quraysh until its end [Quran 106].6
The above advice opens a window into the world of ordinary people, showing how they
lived and how their scholars, traditional healers and sages sought to guide them. It tells
us about how they put to use their resources, their knowledge, technology, tools and
instruments. These people were clearly immersed in an Islamic worldview (even if not
one exactly in accordance with the normative ideal) as indicated by their almost
maverick application of Quranic verses as sexual stimulants.
For the contemporary researcher the relevance of the manuscript lies in it talking
history. The question, though, is: which history and whose? This question carries
added significance when attempting to understand social practice through legal texts in
Timbuktu. The history of the ordinary, forgotten people of Timbuktu is concealed in-
between the lines of this manuscript and thousands like it. Although ostensibly
medicinal or religious in nature, these manuscripts are a powerful resource for recon-
structing the other history of Timbuktu. They reveal the agency and thinking of
ordinary people by relating bizarre details concerning highly sexed housewives and
worried husbands suffering from erectile dysfunction. The contemporary researcher is
thereby exposed to a wealth of social historical information.
Fatwa manuscripts
As mentioned earlier, our readings placed added emphasis on the legal corpus found in
the manuscript collection. We provide a brief sample of some of the material we
encountered before going on to discuss and analyse a specific text in some detail.
Manuscript 4743 (Vol. 4: 117) from the Ahmed Baba collection is a fatwa that was
issued in response to a wife who refused to grant her husband conjugal access by telling
him that he was now forbidden to her in the same way as her father was. In classical
fiqh (law) such a phenomenon is known as zihar, but it is usually the husband who
repudiates the wife by comparing her to the back of his mother. This incident reflects
a unique reversal of roles and is possibly revealing of the higher status accorded to
women in this region. It is equally possible that this may have been an isolated
Manuscript 207, from the same collection, deals with juristic verdicts issued
by Qadi Muhammad b. al-Wafi al-Arawani concerning problems related
to the sale of slaves and inheritance. The author mentions a dispute
between two people regarding the sale of slaves; the import of the manu-
script suggests that in Timbuktu buying and selling was in most cases not
done on a cash basis. The author points out that insistence upon dealing
in cash could lead to loss and destruction of the commodity!
wrong in this claim, precisely because the fatwas are rooted in Timbuktu and tell us
about all people, not only the scholars and notables emphasised in the chronicles.
Wael Hallaq shows convincingly that fatwas originate socially. That many fatwas begin
with a question, or that many jurists begin their response with I have read your
question and carefully considered it, is indicative of their social embeddedness. Fatwas
were thus not just the product of the jurists imagination or hypothetical adventurism;
there is even a dictum that no fatwa should be issued about a problem that has not yet
occurred in the real world. Fatwas involve real persons with real problems and answer
questions stemming from the real world, with the names, professions and places of
residence mentioned. Any rejection of the worldliness of the fatwa genre, Hallaq
argues, would make nonsense of both its form and content.9
Thus the aim is to see, through these legal manuscripts, how the people of Timbuktu
and the broader region made sense of their world by shedding light upon incidental
information embedded in these texts. In other words, researching this legacy holds
potential for going beyond the legal jargon, the particular religious methodology and
the piety; elements that are all fundamental in the issuing of fatwas. The manuscripts
enable one to walk beside the people who either requested the fatwa, or whose doings
were the reason for a fatwa being issued. Their behaviour and attitudes are far more
important than the clear and apparent religiously sanctified or intellectually charged
answer of the mufti. Aspects of this can be gleaned from the detailed elaboration of one
specific text, discussed next.
harsher realities of everyday existence. In this specific case, the fate of a melodramatic requested the fatwa, or whose doings
literary death is by no means as daunting as having to face the chief qadi of ones village, were the reason for a fatwa being
charged with passing judgment on the legality of ones marriage. issued. Their behaviour and attitudes
are far more important than the clear
In his short treatise, Qadi Ahmad Baba draws our attention to a fatwa issued by the
and apparent religiously sanctified
honourable Ali ibn al-Sayyid Umar qadi of Arawan concerning the faskh (annul-
or intellectually charged answer of
ment) of a marriage between a man and a woman deemed foster siblings by virtue of
the mufti.
having shared the same wet-nurse. In Islamic law, if the same wet-nurse suckles children
from different parents they become legally related through the bond of milk kinship.
Everyone in the village knew the legal status of the couple and their wet-nurse, who
was present, identified them as brother and sister. Even though the woman in question
was married to another man, her so-called brother maintained close contact with her,
enjoying free access to her home under the pretence that he was a legal sibling.
Throughout this period, the entire village except the womans husband was aware
of the couples romantic attachment to each other. In fact, the couple did not conceal
their love for each other except, of course, from the husband; nor did anyone in the
village inform the husband of his wifes affair with her brother. The husband finally
suspected his wifes infidelity and divorced her.
For a short time the couple maintained the pretence of being foster siblings, but finally
denied it so that they could be legally married. At this point the wet-nurse, along with
everyone else in the village, also denied their foster relationship and agreed to their
marriage. They were then married by the legal permission of the villages mufti, who
under the circumstances had no choice but to assent to their marriage.
However, when the honourable qadi of Arawan came to know of the incident, he issued
an edict annulling the marriage. He refuted the position of the mufti who had affirmed
the legality of the marriage and marshalled explicit textual proofs, as well as the opinions
of classical scholars, as evidence for his judgment.
The manuscript is interesting for many reasons, but we will now very briefly explore
two interrelated aspects that shed light upon why works in the fatwa genre are funda-
mental sources for the retrieval of social history. The first relates to the genesis of
Islamic substantive law and the second deals more specifically with the devolution of
the nature of the fatwa under the strictures of time and place. It would be more appro-
priate to begin with the latter aspect and to explain what is meant by devolution.
In its essential form, the fatwa is not simply a legal opinion but rather an expression of
a divine ethical imperative. From the very inception of Islam, piety-minded Muslims
were driven by the desire to live in conformity with the divine will as revealed by the
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Quran. In a recent work on the origins of Islamic law,13 Wael Hallaq argues that the
locus of legal expertise in the formative period did not lie with qadis but rather with
private individuals motivated to study the law as a matter of piety, that is, solely as a
religious activity. A similar observation was made earlier on by Marshall Hodgson, who
characterised the early custodians of the law as the Piety Conscious.14
It was therefore through the activities of these proto-qadis that Islamic law came to be
institutionalised. In addition, the responses they provided to questions of faith and
religious practice formed the building blocks of Islamic substantive law or fiqh. Once
again it is Hallaq who convincingly argues that fiqh is far more flexible than was earlier
suggested. He demonstrates how fiqh manuals were continuously updated by new
insights brought about through responses to everyday religious concerns.15 In so doing
he also refutes Joseph Schachts long-standing thesis on the relatively late origins of
Islamic jurisprudence.
What is important for our purposes is to make the connection between the fatwa and
the highly cherished desire of piety-minded Muslims to live in conformity with the
tenets of their faith. We know that the colonial enterprise was extremely damaging to
the well-established Islamic legal institution in Africa and elsewhere in the Muslim
world. However, what can be clearly gleaned from the manuscript under study is that
while the institutional edifice of Islamic law may have been relatively easily
dismantled, its methodology for coping with the vagaries of time has proven to be far
more abiding. In nineteenth-century Timbuktu, we once again find in the Mamma
Haidara manuscript the manifestation of the fatwa in its essential form as an
expression of an act of submission to the divine will.
It is in similar questions and their responses that one catches glimpses of society that
not only fascinate but also humble us by virtue of the insights offered into the common
plight of everyday human existence. If the study of history is to be of any value then its
NOTES
1 The French for Timbuktu is Tombouctou, so as a play on words our project was named the Tombouctou Manuscript Project.
2 President Thabo Mbeki went on a state visit to Mali in November 2001. His counterpart, President Alpha Konar, took him
on a tour of Timbuktu. The visit to the Ahmed Baba Institute was the highlight of the presidents trip and he was so
overwhelmed by the manuscript heritage that he pledged to assist the Malians in their conservation efforts. To this effect,
a working group was formed comprising a cross-section of government functionaries but also including one academic,
Dr Shamil Jeppie, tasked with initiating a project to deliver on the presidents promise. The management of the project is
based at the Department of Arts and Culture. Training of Malian conservators in appropriate conservation procedures began
in 2003, led by conservators from the National Archives of South Africa.
3 This particular usage stands contrary to the pietistic notion that sees the Quran as purely the foundational text and guide
for Muslims on theological matters and legal issues. In this instance, the Quran is seen as equally potent in matters that
would easily be described as blasphemous or at least disrespectful by adherents to the pietistic and rational trend.
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4 Geertz (1974) shows how, in Balinese culture, cocks are masculine symbols par excellence and the language of everyday
moralism is shot through, on the male side of it, with roosterish imagery. Sabung, Balinese for cock, is used metaphorically
to mean hero, warrior, man of parts, ladykiller, bachelor, dandy, political candidate, champion or tough guy. Similarly,
Darnton (1984) shows how in seventeenth-century France cats were viewed as agents of witchcraft, useful for medicinal
purposes and as sex symbols.
5 The author warns that the above-mentioned measures should not be resorted to excessively as they may cause infection
of the womans sexual organs in the same way that modern pharmaceutical companies issue warnings about side
effects pertaining to the usage of their medication.
6 Implementation of this cure requires these verses to be recited three times for a period of seven days (from Sunday to
Saturday), every morning and evening, over leaves (usually seven) from particular trees soaked in water. The water should
then be drunk and poured over certain foods.
7 By ordinary people we mean those who were not rulers, notable merchants or from the intellectual and religious elite.
Darnton (1984: 252253) suggests that historians can benefit much from anthropology in order to understand the
otherness of previous eras.
8 Saad (1983) focuses on the role of wealthy scholarly elites and not on the lives of ordinary people (the subaltern) of Timbuktu.
9 Hallaq (1994: 38).
10 Sayyid (200003).
11 Shakespeare (2000: Act 1, Prologue).
12 Bloom (1998).
13 Hallaq (2005).
14 Hodgson (1974).
15 Hallaq (1994: 38).
REFERENCES
Bloom H (1998) Shakespeare and the invention of the human. New York: Riverhead Books
Darnton R (1984) The great cat massacre and other episodes in French cultural history. London: Penguin Books
Geertz C (1974) Myth, symbol, and culture. New York: Norton
Hallaq W (1994) From fatwa to furu. Islamic Law and Society 1(1): 2965
Hallaq W (2005) The origins of Islamic law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hodgson MGS (1974) The venture of Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Saad E (1983) A social history of Timbuktu: The role of Muslim scholars and notables, 14001900. Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press
Sayyid AF (Ed.) (200003) Catalogue of manuscripts in Mamma Haidara Library (4 vols, prepared by Abdel Kader Haidara).
London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Shakespeare W (2000) Romeo and Juliet. Edited and with an introduction by H Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers
of timbuktu
scholars
part iii
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192
CHAPTER 13
The knowledge we have about the Islamisation of the populations of the Saharan and sub-
Saharan west is sometimes confused and lacking in historical rigour, for the beginnings of
Islam in Saharan Africa are known only in their broadest outlines.2 The Islamisation of
these populations seems to have been slow and progressive.3 It began with missionaries
and merchants who were probably Ibadites (Kharijite)4 and was completed by the
Almoravid movement (eleventh century AD). It was shaped into its definitive form in
the cradle of the Sanhaja society.
Beginning with this Almoravid movement, Islam began to play a decisive role in the
cultural, social and political sphere of the western regions of Saharan and sub-Saharan
Africa. It created a shockwave that deeply affected the region, and became implanted
in the behaviour, lifestyle and culture of the people. The Malikite rite, the Junaydite
order, and the Asharite dogma5 represented the principal reference points of this Islam.
All three delineated the general framework of the religious life of the people.
all regions and classes of society. of the spititual way around siyyaha7 (mystical states) can be noticed. But it is from the
They first became visible in the beginning of the seventh century that some Muslim ascetics (zuhhad), steeped in piety,
cult of saints, namely men began to feel a need to devote themselves to this divine adoration. These zuhhad
living or dead who possessed observed the behavioural code known as adabi; they also observed rituals which occupied
baraka or supernatural powers. a vital place in their way of living and behaving.
Sufism thus began as a mystical, philosophical and intellectual movement, but one
should not forget that the resulting fraternalism (turuqiyya) constitutes a form of socia-
bility with its own way of functioning, and its own social and political action. It is
important to remember that it is principally as a form of sociability that Sufism
manifests its relationship with history and with past and present societies.
The affiliation of each Sufi to his order is carried out by means of a pact consisting of
a profession of religious faith and vows which vary according to the different brother-
hoods. Total submission to the master is a necessary condition for spiritual allegiance.
In this sense the famous Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun wrote: The disciple must be in
the hands of a shaykh, as the body is in the hands of the corpse-washer, or the blind
man stepping towards the ocean is in the hands of his guide.8
The different leaders of the orders of brotherhoods known in the Sunni world observe
the path of al-Junayd (d.909). This famous Sufi, originally from Baghdad, should be
considered the great inspiration for a moderate version of Sufism. Avoiding the
doctrinal excesses of mystics such as Abu Yazid al-Bastami, Du al-Nun al-Misri and al-
Hallaj, who frightened and distanced orthodox believers, he laid the foundations upon
The brotherhoods were introduced south of the Sahara from the fifteenth century and
spread like a tidal wave across all regions and classes of society. They first became
visible in the cult of saints, namely men living or dead who possessed baraka or
supernatural powers.10
With time, a standard organisation developed around this cult; its essential elements
were the zawiya (place of residence of the saint or his spirit), the saint or his lieutenant
(generally a descendant) and the murids (disciples or aspiring followers).11
The religious orders or brotherhoods that developed widely south of the Sahara are one
aspect of the cult of saints. These orders were organised and hierarchical and some of
them extended their branches into a large proportion of the Muslim world.
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In the society of the time, the saint was vital as a protector and saviour. His place of
residence became not only a sanctuary and religious centre, but a social and political
centre too.12 The zawiya was the centre of the cult of the saint, which practised the
dhikr ceremony tireless repetition of a certain prayer, in an appropriate manner, until
the achievement of a state of grace where one entered into contact with the divine.
However, the role of zawiya was not limited to mystical instruction (tarbiyya); it filled
numerous social functions and was responsible for the redistribution of worldly posses-
sions to all those in need the poor, fugitives and foreigners in transit.13
Despite the traditional hostility of the fuqaha (jurists) towards those who claim direct
access to God through saintliness (walaya) outside societal norms, religious brotherhoods
developed so rapidly in the sub-Saharan region that belonging to one of the brotherhoods
became an important part of carrying out religious duties.14
The most important of the religious brotherhoods which spread through the sub-
Saharan region are:
The Qadiriyya (referring to Sidi Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani), especially in its two
branches: al-Bakkaiyya (referring to al-Shaykh Sidi Amar ould al-Shaykh Sidi
Ahmad al-Bakkay, d. sixteenth century) and al-Fadiliyya (referring to al-Shaykh
Muhammad Fadil ould Mamin,15 d.186970).
The Shadhiliyya (referring to Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, d.1169) in its two branches:
al-Nasiriyya (referring to Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Diri, d.1626) and al-Gudfiyya16
(referring to al-Shaykh Muhammad Lagdaf ould Ahmad al-Dawdi al-Jaafari17 d.1802).
The Tijaniyya (referring to al-Shaykh Sidi Ahmad al-Tijani, d.1815) with its two
branches: al-Hafiziyya (referring to al-Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafid ould al-Mukhtar,18
d.1831) and al-Hamawiyya19 referring to al-Shaykh Hamah Allah20 (d.1943).
The success of these brotherhoods in the sub-Saharan world must be considered in the
light of several factors. It can be explained by the fact that material life was becoming
more difficult, and disasters like droughts, epidemics and wars were increasing. There
was also widespread weakening of the central authorities (Almoravid, Mali, Wolof) and
growing insecurity, aggravated by the strengthening of tribal ties which occurred
throughout the zone.22
There is another explanation for the extraordinary success of the brotherhoods: they
recuperated and mobilised former pre-Islamic practices and beliefs. It goes without
saying that these orders, from the very fact of their extraordinary success with the
masses, ended up having very little to do with the Sufi or mystic ideal.
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The Qadiriyya
This mystical brotherhood is spread out all over the world and takes its name from its
founder Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d.1167), an Iraqi originally from Naf, south of the
Caspian Sea. Early on he acquired the rudiments of Arabic in his native village before
going to Baghdad to pursue studies in Islamic law and theology with various doctors
from different schools Hanbalite, Shafiite, and so on. He was initiated into Sufism
by Shaykh Abu al-Khayr Muhammad ibn Muslim al-Abbas (d.1131).23
Shaykh Abd al-Qadir was the most influential scholar of his time in the science of
sharia (religious law) and the disciplines related to haqiqa (divine truth). His reputation
in the sciences of Sufism and sharia was such that he eventually became known as the
most learned man of his time (qutbu zamanihi).24
This great Sufi master built a zawiya which quickly became famous for the quality of its
written and oral teachings. These instructions centred on the total renunciation of
worldly life and the obligation to devote oneself constantly to exercises of piety, to live
for God alone, to renounce the pomp and ceremony of this world, to retreat from
society, to devote oneself to devotional practices, and to in no way seek the pleasure,
riches and honours that most men seek.25
The main ideas of Abd al-Qadirs new order are grouped in two works entitled al-
Ghunya li-talibi tariqi al-haqq (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth) and
al-Fath al-rabbani (The Sublime Revelation), where he expounds the themes of his
mystic philosophy.
The Qadiriyya order only spread into the world many years after the disappearance of
its founder,26 towards the end of the twelfth century AD, thanks to the dynamism of his
children, grandchildren and followers. Abu Madyan (d.1198) played an important role
in the expansion of this mystic order in all regions of the Muslim west.27
In the sub-Saharan region the Qadiriyya order was introduced by Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Karim al-Maghili.29 Sidi Ahmad al-Bakkay,30 the son of Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti
(born at the beginning of the sixteenth century) was, it seems, the first to join, but it
doesnt appear that he worked towards the popularisation of the movement.31 It was his
son, Shaykh Sidi Amar, a faithful disciple and travelling companion of al-Maghili, who
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became a keen propagator of the Qadiriyya order, and the great master of this order32
after al-Maghilis return to the north. It was by means of this grouping of mystics that
the Qadiriyya order entered the Sahara. (Chapter 14 of this volume provides more
detail on the history of the Kunti family.)
Shaykh Sidi Amar was succeeded by his eldest son Ahmad al-Fayram (d. c.1553).
Ahmad al-Fayram was succeeded by his eldest son al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al-
Raggad (from whom the Rgagda tribal groups name is derived). He was a great scholar
and died in 1577. Shaykh al-Raggad was succeeded by his son al-Shaykh Sidi Ahmad
(d.1652), who constructed the zawiya in Tuat.
Shaykh Sidi Ahmad was succeeded by his son Sidi Ali, the qutb or pole of saints and
master during his reign (165289) and whose marvels were widely known.33 Sidi Ali
was succeeded by two nephews, the sons of Sidi Amar ibn Sidi Ahmad: first al-Shaykh
Sidi Ahmad al-Khalifa (d.1693), then al-Shaykh Sidi al-Amin Bou Ngab, the Man in
the Veil (d.1717).34
After Sidi al-Amin the khilafa (mastery) of the Qadiriyya left the tribe and passed to a
sherif of Takrour whose name was Sidi Ali b. al-Najib b. Muhammad b. Shuayb (d.1757).
It was at Taghaza that he received his mystical initiation from Sidi al-Amin.35 After
Sidi Ali, mastery of the tariqa came back to the Kunta tribe, yet this time not to the
Rgagda tribal group, but to the Awlad al-Wafi tribal group. This is where al-Shaykh Sidi
al-Mukhtar al-Kabir plays his part.
Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar was the second last of the children of Ahmad ould Abu
Bakr ould Sidi Muhammad ould Habib Allah Wuld al-Wafi ould Sidi Amar al-Shaykh
ould Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti, the eponymous forebear of the Kunta tribe.36
The Kunta were propagators of the Qadiriyya order south of the Sahara. They have
identified themselves with (and been identified with) this order to such an extent that
their names have become synonymous. West African Qadiriyya is often called
Bakkaiyya from the name of the Kunta ancestor al-Shaykh Sidi Amar ould al-Shaykh
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Sidi Ahmad al-Bakkay who spread the order in the sixteenth century or Mukhtariyya,
from the name of Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti who restored the order at the end of the
eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century.
Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar was born in the north-east of Araoun in Azawad (a region
in the north-west of Mali) between 1729 and 1730. He lost his mother when he was
four or five years old and his father when he was ten. His elder brother Muhammad
became his guardian, although it seems he was strongly influenced by his maternal
grandfather Beddi ibn al-Habib, who had a strong affection for him.38
Raised by scholarly marabouts of high distinction, and gifted with intelligence, it is not
surprising that from his first years Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar developed rapidly in the
paths of piety and Islamic science.
At the age of 14 he left his guardians in search of divine wisdom, knowledge and
guidance. His first masters were Tuareg scholars of the Kel Essouk group. He then
continued his studies of Islamic law and in particular of Khalils Mukhtasar with another
Tuareg tribal group (the Kel Hourma), where he studied with several scholars .39
Convinced he should go deeper into his studies, he turned towards Timbuktu where he
stopped for a while only to continue his search for his master of choice, al-Shaykh Ali
ibn Najib, a great sage and an illustrious master of Qadiriyya. At his school he was
instructed in the science of Quranic exegesis, the science of tradition, the life of the
Prophet (sira), theology (aqida), jurisprudence (fiqh), grammar, recitation of the Quran
(qiraa) and philology.40
After having acquired mastery of 13 disciplines relating to religious law and its
associated sciences, he turned towards the spiritual path under the guidance of this
same shaykh.41 He practised extremely harsh exercises of piety to prepare himself for
the mystical order. Through this process his shaykh inculcated a powerful mystical
al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar was also one of the most illustrious theologians of the west
Sahara and of Bilad al-Sudan. His teachings attracted students of every kind to his
place of residence and he authored a large number of works, including:
Tafsir al-fatiha (commentary on the fatiha);
Tafsir al-Quran (commentary on the Quran);
al-Shumus al-muhammadiyya (Muhammadan Suns a work of theology);
al-Jura al-safiyya (The Pure Mouthful);
Kashf al-labs fi ma bayna al-ruh wa al-nafs (Clarification of Ambiguity in the
Difference Between the Spirit and the Soul);
Hidayat al-tullab (The Conversion of Students; three volumes);
al-Minna fi itiqad ahl al-sunna (Favour in Orthodox Belief);
al-Burd al-muwwashsha (The Many-Coloured Garment);
Kashf al-gumma (The End of Doubt);
al-Ajwiba al-labbatiyya (Replies to the Questions of Labbat);
Fadail ayat al-Kursi (The Virtues of ayat al-Kursi);
al-Albab fi al-ansab (Hearts Concerning Genealogies);
Sharh al-ism al-azam (Commentary on the Great Name of God);
Junnat al-murid (The Followers Shield);
Jadwat al-anwar fi al-dabbi an awliyya Allah al-akhyar (The Brand of Light for the
Defence of Gods Finest Saints);
al-Kawkab al-waqqad (The Shining Star).
Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar died on 29 May 1811 at the age of either 84 or 91, leaving
more than 8 children. He was buried in Bulanwar in the north of Mali.
The founding of Bakkaiyya took place within the framework of rejuvenating the religion
and the brotherhoods. This renewal (tajdid) was experienced all over the Muslim world
at the end of the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century.
According to al-Shaykh al-Mukhtar, the wird of Bakkaiyya is the most illustrious; it holds
pride of place over all others and cannot be replaced by any other.45 He who possesses
it dies only in the best possible conditions.46 This wird, which is strictly obligatory, is
composed of a certain number of dhikr that disciples must accomplish after every prayer:
God provides us with everything, what an Excellent Protector (200 times).
I ask forgiveness from God, the Immense (200 times).
There is nothing but God, the King, the Truth, the Evident (100 times).
The prayer for the Prophet (100 times).47
In addition to this wird, the follower must recite a certain number of extra prayers of
which the wadhifa is the most important.
This tendency of the Bakkaiyya order to conform to religious orthodoxy (always under-
lined by disciples of al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar) is confirmed elsewhere by a renowned
scholar and Sufi of Shadhili allegiance. Muhammad Salim ould Alumma (d.1963)
reports that al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti often defined tasawwuf by saying:
Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar was a veritable religious conqueror whose miracles are so
numerous they can scarcely be counted.50 His disciples were missionaries who spread
through all the countries of West Africa.51 He made the Kunta into Islamisers and
spiritual directors of the tribes of the Sahel and the Sahara. Thanks to the charisma and
dynamism of its disciples, this tariqa took root in all the countries of West Africa and
became the most important brotherhood from the end of the eighteenth century.
Outside the Moorish and Tuareg tribes, the spirituality preached through the Qadiriyya
found fertile ground in African populations. Its memory is deepest in Senegal, Guinea,
northern Ivory Coast and in the Islamised Sudan. All the black peoples who consider
themselves adherents of Qadirism come under the affiliation and discipleship of al-
Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar.
Paul Marty, the renowned French scholar of the region, claims that the Bakkaiyya
order is practised by:
all Kunta tribal groups from Mali, Algeria and Mauritania;
the zawiya of al-Shaykh Sidiyya al-Mukhtar and in particular all the attached
Moorish and black branches;
the Mourides group of al-Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba in Senegalese Baol and
its dependants;
the Bou Kunta in Senegal and all the attached branches;
the Fulani, Songhay and Igellad group of the Middle Niger region (Goundam);
the Fulani and Marka group from Masina (Jenne, Dia);
the Malinka group from upper Guinea (Kouroussa, Kankan, Beyla);
all the Diakanke groups and their subsidiaries from Guinea (Touba, Bakadadji,
Bissikrima, Kindia, Conakry) and upper Senegal (Bafoulab, Kita);
This interest in occult knowledge of Bakkaiyya merits particular attention. This occult
knowledge is formulated in the Moorish saying al hikmatou kuntiyyatun aw futiyyatun
(wisdom/occult knowledge belongs to the Kunta and Futa) and has caused long
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polemics between the fuqaha of the region. For this reason, in what follows we will
describe in detail justification for the usage of occult knowledge in the Bakkaiyya,
taking as a foundation the fatawa of the great founding father of the Bakkaiyya order,
al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti.
With Islamisation, this occult and mysterious power became largely the privilege of
scholars and saints, and particularly the most charismatic amongst them. The power of
these men was no longer formulated in terms of magic but in terms borrowed from the
new religion they could act on nature by virtue of the Holy Word rather than through
magical practice. From then on, the emphasis was placed on the proximity of these men
to divinity (the notion of holiness) or on the gifts that divinity had granted them (the
notion of baraka).
In talismanic art, it is difficult to make the distinction between what is legal and part
of secret science (sirr) and what is prohibited because it is part of magic. Besides, in all
Muslim societies sorcery, although separated from religion, tends to reintegrate with it
by means of talismanic art. This is why, in Ibn Khalduns opinion, Islam makes no
distinction between sirr and talismanic arts, and in al-Muqaddima he places them both
in the only chapter on prohibited practices.53
Without doubt, Islam is hostile to occult practices and conceptions for they can
conceal animist syncretism, which had a large hold on the local population. The fatwa
of al-Maghili (d.1461), in reply to the questions of Askiya Muhammad (14931528),
the ruler of Mali, confirms this sentence for the use of magic:
In fact, the Quran, which represents the first fundamental source of Islamic law,
contains no information concerning esoteric therapeutic practices. On the other hand,
prophetic tradition or the Sunna, the second fundamental source of Islamic law,
contains numerous hadiths which explicitly refer to treatments of an esoteric nature.
The use of therapeutic incantation (ruqa) by the Prophet and his companions is
reported in several anthologies of hadiths, including the two authentic anthologies of al-
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In a famous hadith the Prophet says: For every illness, God has provided a cure.55 The
recognition by the Prophet himself of the therapeutic value of the fatiha (the first sura
of the Quran) is for Muslim theologians the most important argument for the legality
of incantation.
The Prophet himself opened the way to treatment of illnesses and problems by means
of esoteric procedures. The signs of particular immediate power accorded to the Quran
are manifest even in the lifetime of the founder of Islam. In this regard, the use of the
sura fatiha by one of the Prophets companions as an incantation to heal snake bites is
highly instructive. Citing Abu Said al-Khudri, al-Bukhari reports:
The discreet presence of the Arabic root word raqa with its incantatory content in the
Quran certainly contributed to the success of the use of incantations, even if the
success was ascribable to prophetic practice, amply relayed by traditionists.
In this vein, Sidi Abd Allah ould al-Haj Ibrahim (d.1817) wrote:
Religious law does not distinguish between magic, talismans and illusionism: it puts
them all in the same category of forbidden objects. These sciences are forbidden
because they turn the soul towards the stars or other objects rather than towards the
Creator. The Lawmaker has only allowed us actions in accordance with our religion,
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which assures us happiness in the afterlife (akhira) and well-being on earth (dunya).
Outside of these two legitimate preoccupations, everything harmful is forbidden in
proportion to the amount of harm it can do.57
Likewise, Muhammed Fal ould Muttali (d.1870) said in a poem (prose translation
follows):
Citing Ibn Arafa, al-Saidi says that the practice of incantation using hermetic words
or expressions is rigorously forbidden, even if effective. Their authors may even be
subjected to the death penalty.58
The major argument of these fuqaha is the reply that Malik (d.795) gave to someone
who asked him if the use of non-Arabic Names of God (al-asma al-ajamiyya) in their
original form for esoteric ends is authorised by Islam. He replied, Who tells you that it
is not infidelity (kufr)?59
For al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar, Maliks answer is not as cutting as it appears. In fact, it is
rather ambiguous for it lends itself to differing interpretations. One interpretation would,
for example, lift the ban in the case where the user of these formulas made sure of the
non-existence of elements opposed to the monotheistic spirit.60 Infidelity is thought of
as the association of other deities or elements with the One God; if one were to make
sure the other names referred only to Allah, one would still fall within monotheism.
Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar considers that the science of the secret is authorised on
condition it obtains good results. The prohibition rests on the results of the incan-
tation. If these are positive, the prohibition is lifted; if not, it remains in place. This
position is based on ethical considerations inspired by the Prophets hadith: Do not
hesitate to come to the aid of your brother in Islam.61
Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar puts forward a second argument, that the incantation of
incomprehensible phrases is well known in prophetic tradition.
Theologians who authorise the black arts refer to the above hadith and its hermetic
formulas. As noted concerning the differing interpretations of Maliks words, the
hermetic character of an incantatory phrase should not be a handicap for its use
towards therapeutic ends. The continuity between pre-Islamic Arabic practices and
Quranic practices is clearly evident in the example of incantation.
On the other hand, al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar thinks that incantation or any other
therapeutic formula is only effective if its user is pious and possesses baraka, for the
esoteric force of the incantation is directly linked to the socioreligious status and
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Abu Hamid al-Ghazali leads us to understand moreover that the effectiveness of the
incantation resides as much in the saliva as in the magical formula itself. This is why
it is often said of the users of unsuccessful incantations that they lack the spittle of
Sahnun.64
This famous phrase was pronounced by a great Islamic saint when various complaints about
one of the disciples of Sahnun (d.854) were being addressed to him. The disciple wanted
to continue the tradition of his master in the healing of diverse illnesses through the
recitation of the fatiha. Although the disciple in question repeated the same incantation
as his master, his patients never managed to recover. They lodged a complaint against him
with a holy man of the time who called him in and interrogated him on his manner of
treating his patients. The healer replied that he acted just as his master Sahnun had done
he repeated the fatiha and spat lightly on his patients. The holy man replied, Indeed
the fatiha is incontestably an effective incantation for healing all sorts of illnesses as the
Prophet said, but does your spittle have the same power as that of Sahnun?65
In the last two centuries the region has known continual theological quarrelling over
this matter. The climax of these polemics occurred in 1996. It is illustrated by an
anecdote over which much ink has been spilled, and which has re-ignited the debate
with greater fervour.
It is the story of a woman who was bitten by a snake in a small village situated in the
Mederdra department of Mauritania. Following the bite the womans foot swelled up and
the first signs of poisoning began to show. Her husband, a Salafite trader, refused the inter-
vention of a Qadirite cousin, although well known in the area for his mastery of these
sciences. The husband began to make fatiha incantations himself in accordance with
the prophetic tradition. This procedure was utilised by the Prophets companion Abu
Said al-Khudri and consecrated by the Prophet in the famous hadith mentioned above.
Despite the reticence of the husband, the local qadi judged that the womans situation
required urgent attention and ordered the healer to be summoned. When he began his
incantations there was an immediate improvement in the womans condition. He
breathed several formulas from the so-called black gabza into his turban, with which he
fanned the bitten limb. The patient vomited straight away and began to feel better.
Several people who came to enquire into the state of the woman declared that the
husband had nearly killed his wife with the recitation of the fatiha.
These words were reported to other people in the village of Salafite allegiances, and
they automatically considered them as a declared heresy they were considered heresy
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since they claimed that the fatiha, in other words the Word of God, had almost killed
someone. The problem became rather serious and was put for arbitration before the qadi
of the village. He cut the debate short by saying that these words were not aimed at the
Quran but rather at the user of the incantation, who apparently did not possess the
famous spittle of Sahnun. The qadi viewed the healer as a Muslim who had used his
words to save the life of a person in danger. His words had had the desired effect; all
this was considered as lawful in Islam.
This debate illustrates the controversial aspect of incantation and of the sciences of
knowledge. From it we can draw several lessons, in particular that Qadirite populations
neither reject nor hesitate to use even the most hermetic and unintelligible occult formula.
The story and the debate that accompanied it had the effect of encouraging this sort of
practice and reinforced arguments in favour of the positive effects of the occult sciences.
This is also why there is a strong tendency in this society to have greater faith in the
virtue of so-called black practices than in so-called white practices. Many people
believe that the use of white incantatory practices requires a now rare degree of piety
and even perhaps intrinsic or hereditary aptitudes in the practitioner, whilst black
incantations require neither great erudition nor, generally speaking, any natural dispo-
sition. Mastering them can be achieved with a short training period and initiation.
Just as the shaykhs of Bakkaiyya see nothing wrong with the use of knowledge (secrets
of letters and geometric forms), nor do they see anything wrong with its ensuing
remuneration. In this regard, al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar wrote:
affairs, the more he lost control of the tariqa and his spiritual authority.67
Al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad was born in 1765. He too was famous for his immense
learning, his austerity, his ascetism and his power of attraction through speech and
visions. He was incontestably the greatest representative of the Bakkaiyya order after
the disappearance of his father and he distinguished himself from his other brothers by
his reputation as a mystic. His many miracles contributed to creating this image of him
in the eyes of his followers.
This great Sufi of the Bakkaiyya was useful to his contemporaries. He saved the town
of Timbuktu from total destruction by Cheikhou Amadous Fulanis in around 182526.
His intervention stopped the pillage and arson, and led to the organisation of a regular
governmental mission of Fulanis to Timbuktu.
During the life of his father, al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad undertook several missions of
a political nature to the tribes and authorities of the region all activity, albeit
perceived as religious, had a political and social dimension. He was in a sense the
manager of the political and social affairs of his father, and thus became very experi-
enced in these matters. He distinguished himself through the strategies he used to give
his group social standing in his negotiations over territorial issues.
He died in 1826, and continuing his work became the major preoccupation of his family.
As with any organisation based mainly on personal charisma, the disappearance of the
founding fathers changed the nature of charismatic domination in the brotherhood.
Al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad was succeeded by his two eldest sons: first Sidi al-Mukhtar
al-Sagir (d.1847), then al-Shaykh Sidi Ahmad al-Bakkay (d.1865).
al-Haj Atfaga (Idaydba); al-Shaykh Ahmed ould Awaysi (Idaynnib); al-Shaykh ould Animanni (Anwazir); al-Shaykh Baba
al-Hay ould Mahmud ould al-Shaykh Amar (Abdukkal); al-Shaykh al-Mukhtar (Awlad Bisba); al-Shaykh al-Mustaf
ould al-Arbi (Awlad Abyayri); al-Shaykh Muhammad al-Amin ould Abd al-Wahhab (Leglagma); al-Shaykh Abbata ould
al-Talib Abd Allah (Idagjmalla).
52 Marty (1920: 98).
53 Ibn Khaldun (1985: 87).
54 Cuoq (1975: 28).
55 Ibn Anas Malik (1977: 342).
56 al-Bukhari (1947: 123).
57 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
58 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
59 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
60 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
61 al-Bukhari (1947: 89).
62 Muslim (1954: 4/54).
63 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
64 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
65 Al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti, al-Kawkab al-waqqad.
66 al-Fatawa, in Ould el-Bara (forthcoming).
67 Gellener (1970).
Beyries J (1935) Notes sur les Ghoudf de Mauritanie. Revue dtudes Islamiques 1: 5273
Boubrik R (1999) Saints et socits, anthropologie historique dune confrrie ouest saharienne. Paris: CNRS editions
al-Bukhari (1947) al-Jami al-sahih (Vol. 2). Cairo: al-Babi al-Halabi Press edition
Cuoq J (1975) Recueil de sources arabes concernant lAfrique occidentale du VIIIme au XVIme sicle. Paris: CNRS editions
Cuoq J (1984) Histoire de lislamisation de lAfrique de lOuest des origines a la fin du XVIme sicle. Paris: Librairie Orientale
Paul Geuthner
Gellener E (1970) Pouvoir politique et fonction religieuse dans lIslam marocain. Annales MayJune: 699713
Holland M (trans.) (1992) al-Fath al-rabbani (Dar al-Albab, Damascus, n.d.). Houston: Al-Baz Publishing
Holland M (trans.) (1997) al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq (Dar al-Albab, Damascus, n.d.). Fort Lauderdale: Al-Baz Publishing
Ibn Anas Malik (1977) al-Muwwatta. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya edition
Ibn Khaldun (1985) al-Muqaddima. Beirut: Dar Sadir edition
Laforgue P (1928) Une secte hrsiarque en Mauritanie les Ghoudf. Bulletin du Comit dtudes Historiques et Scientifiques
de lAOF 1: 654665
Marty P (Ed.) (1920) Etude sur lIslam et les tribus du Soudan: Tome premier les Kounta de lEst-les Berabich-les Iguellad.
Paris: Ernest LeRoux
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Munis H (1997) Tahqiq kitab wathaiq al-Murabitin wa l-Muwwahidin. Cairo: Dar al-Maarif
Muslim AH (1954) al-Jami al-sahih. Cairo: Matbaat al-Babi al-Halabi edition
Ould el-Bara Y (forthcoming) al-Majmoua al-Kubra al-Chamila li fatawa wa nawazili wa ahkami Ahl Garb wa Janub Garb
al-Sahra
Ould Muhammad Baba A (199697) Le contexte tribal du mouvement Almoravides. PhD thesis, DEA University CA Diop, Dakar
Ould Cheikh AW (1991) La tribu comme volont et comme reprsentation. In P Bonte (Ed.) Al-Ansab: La qute des origines.
Paris: Maison des sciences de lHomme
Ould Cheikh AW (2001) La gnalogie et les capitaux flottants: al-Saykh Sid al-Mukhtar et les Kunta. In Emirs et prsidents:
figures de la parent et du politique dans le monde arabe, (collective authorship, under the direction of P Bonte, E Conte
& P Dresch). Paris: CNRS editions
Traor A (Ed.) (1983) Islam et colonisation en Afrique: Cheikh Hamahoullah: homme de foi et rsistant. Paris: Maisonneuve
& Larose
Weber M (1995) Le savant et le politique. Paris: Plon
Wuld Hamidun M (1987) Hayat muritaniyya (la vie intellectuelle), al-dar al-arabiyya li al-kitab (Vol. 3). Tunis, Tripoli: no publisher
212
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 14
Al-Shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Habib Allah ibn al-Wafi
ibn Umar al-Shaykh ibn Ahmad al-Bakkay ibn Muhammad al-Kunti, known as al-
Shaykh al-Kabir, was born Arawan in 1729 and settled in Timbuktu in his youth. He
died in 1811 in Bulunwar, which is over 100 kilometres from Timbuktu. The shaykh
belonged to the Kunt, a famous tribe in the region known for its knowledge and piety
and which traced itself back to Uqba ibn Nafi a companion of Prophet Muhammad
and an Arab general who began the Islamic conquest of North Africa; he died in 683.
The shaykh studied all the Islamic disciplines, including its fundamental principles, its
branches and its arts, such as jurisprudence, grammar, morphology, prophetic traditions,
Quranic exegesis, astronomy, philosophy, internal sciences, external sciences,2 and so on.
He became skilful in all of these. Ahmad al-Bakkay, one of his grandsons, describes him thus Opposite: A folio from a
in a poem: He read the Khulasa [The Summary] of Imam Malik before the obligatory manuscript on astrology.
fasting of the month Ramadan [meaning that he had not yet reached the age of puberty Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-
Kunti discussed the stars and
when religious duties become obligatory for a Muslim he was between seven and
what was said about them in
twelve years old]; his grandfather taught it to him and he was the shaykh of the path.3 the Torah: the 12 towers and
their division into 28 stations;
He was brought up in a Sufi environment under the tutelage of al-Shaykh Sayyid Ali every tower having two-and-a-
ibn al-Najib and from him he took the Qadiri Sufi path. He renewed the Qadiri path, third stations, and these towers
building many zawiyas and adding to it a number of prayers, litanies and other being divided into 360 degrees;
devotions. He was a pious and righteous teacher and had a relationship with all the every tower having 30 degrees;
that the sun passes once every
scholars of the region, who flocked to him from all areas and tribes. He was also a skilled year and by this an orbit is
politician, clear in word and action, with good insight into matters. Tribal instability completed; and the moon
was very common in his time and he played an exemplary role in striving towards completes a cycle in 28 days.
He spent his life admonishing, guiding, improving and educating all classes of people
in Timbuktu and its surrounds. One of his students, the great shaykh, jurist and pious
saint al-Shaykh Muhammad Abd Allah Suad, alluded to this in a poem praising
Timbuktu:
Al-Shaykh al-Kabirs son wrote a biographical account of the shaykhs life in a huge
volume which he did not complete and which he named Kitab al-taraif wa al-talaid fi
dhikr karama al-walida wa al-walid (The Exquisite and Rare Regarding the Miracles of
the Mother and Father).5 A brief synopsis of the volume follows.
INTRODUCTION: The appearance of a karama and its conditions and the difference
between it and a mujiza and other unusual events and the refutation of those who
reject the occurrence of a miracle.
CHAPTER 1: The birth of the two shaykhs (that is, Sayyid Mukhtar and his wife), their
age at their death, their lineage and the beginning of their lives (how they started out
and reached the status that they had); how the shaykh sought knowledge, his travelling
for it and how he persevered in seeking it; those who studied under him.
CHAPTER 2: His piety and ascetic qualities while still being wealthy; his perseverance,
respect, forgiving nature and courage; his politics.
CHAPTER 4: His interaction with people: oppressors, leaders, ordinary people, students,
neighbours, relatives, friends and so on.
CHAPTER 5: Unusual deeds which are agreed upon as the pearls of his everlasting super-
natural activities, that is, his miracles since he was considered a saint.
CHAPTER 7: His bequests and correspondence, which are no less important than his
other profound writings and great poetry; his death and the period just prior to it.
Islamic law, belief in the oneness of Allah, the Quran, hadith, jihad, politics, medicine, poetry, astronomy and so on.
science, geography, poetry, astronomy and so on. A brief discussion of some of his most
important works follows.
Works at the Ahmed Baba Institute and the Mamma Haidara Library
This 519-page manuscript7 was copied from the original in 1859 in a beautiful, clear
Sahrawi script. The manuscript consists of Islamic creed and touches upon many
academic issues. The author was asked to:
that were revealed at the beginning pretation of ayat al-kursi,9 the different types of shafaa, the Prophet being the best of
of the Quran. prophets, and gives an overview of the science of astronomy.
The following topics are also covered in the manuscript: types of faith and believers,
the nourishing of faith and the benefits of istighfar (seeking forgiveness); the infallibility
of the prophets; major sins and how they are distinguished from minor sins; predes-
tination; the unbelief of all nations except the Islamic nation; the invalidity of fire
worshipping; the glorification of mountains and birds and the signs of the last hour,
such as the descending of Isa (Jesus) and the coming of dajjal (the Antichrist); the
letters that were revealed at the beginning of the Quran; different types of proofs and
admonitions; a description of the throne of Allah; the debate of the Prophet with the
delegation of Najran10 concerning the oneness of Allah; the saints, signs of sainthood,
miracles of the saints and types of awliya; a biography of Abu Bakr and those who came
after him, such as Umar; the keys to and treasures of paradise; the people of the
allegiance of al-ridwan;11 the innocence of Aisha and the virtues of Aisha and Khadija;
the student of knowledge and the virtue of seeking knowledge; the virtues of the
household of the Prophet; important admonitions uttered by al-Hasan ibn Jafar; the
virtues of people of honour, such as Abu Madyan; ascetic saints that lived in seclusion
in mountains and caves, worshipping Allah; things that prevent a response to dua
(supplication); the virtue of those who have knowledge of Allah; al-Maghilis poem
when he reached the rawda (sacred area) in Medina; a discussion of al-Maghili and the
fall of the Askiya Empire; the burial of Sayyid Umar al-Shaykh in the land of Aff Sus;
the story of a Christian; the children of Abd al-Rahman al-Barabish and a historical
overview of his family; mention of al-Shaykh Sayyid Ahmad al-Fayram, al-Sayyid
Muhammad al-Ruqad and al-Sayyid Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Ruqadi; an
overview of the history of the Bilad al-Sudan and its empire until Ghana; a biography
of Muhammad ibn Muhammad known as Babaku; information about al-Shaykh Sayyid
al-Mukhtar and his travels and visits to Walata; the fruits of knowledge; statues; the
four mosques; the parables used by Allah; types of glorification of the angels; the glori-
fication of inanimate objects; the remembrance of Allah after prayers; a compendium
of remembrance and numerous invocations; the names of the satans (the devils) and
how they mislead people; the performance of righteousness; the wisdom of recurring
and extraordinary events; Allahs words: Allah did not make for man two hearts in his
chest; the necessity of believing in the night journey of the Prophet; the virtue of
seeking forgiveness; the virtue of certain adhkar and adhkar to be said in the mornings
and evenings; the virtue of beneficial knowledge and that which follows it; the reality
and nourishment of faith; types of humility; the validity of the faith of the follower.
The compilation of this six-chapter manuscript12 was completed in June 1793. Al-
Shaykh al-Kabir called it by this title because, according to him, it was based on the
Book (al-Quran), prophetic tradition and stories of the prophets and saints. The work
was also abridged under the title al-Rashfa al-shafiya min al-jara al-safiya (The Curing
Gulp of the Purified Dosage).13
In the introduction al-Shaykh al-Kabir mentions all the books that he used as references,
such as the six primary sources in hadith, al-Targhib wa al-tarhib (The Encouragement
and Discouragement), Amal al-yawm wa al-layla (Rituals for the Day and Night), al-
Rawda (The Garden of the Seekers) of al-Nawawi, al-Irshad (The Guidance), al-Rawd
al-aniq (The Eloquent Training), al-Samarkandis book, al-Qutis book al-Lubab (The
Core), Sunan al-salikin (The Ways of the Travellers), al-Ashwaq fi masarih al-ushaq (The
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Yearning of the Lovers) and the book (title not mentioned) of Ibn al-Khatib.
He alludes to many topics, including khalwa, special characteristics of the Prophet, the
seeking of knowledge, remedies for ailments of the heart, intermediation, well-known
awliya, refutation of the claims of some Islamic sects, recommendation of seclusion with
Allah, the divisions of the inner self, types of disciplines, the meaning of linguistics, evil
scholars and dajjal, the realities of dhikr and the relationship of love, Allah does not occupy
a particular direction,14 the blameworthiness of arguing, general ethics, interaction
with people, the usage of tobacco, corruption, spreading mischief, killing, and doing
good towards the family and women and the punishment of those who degrade them.
In this 12-chapter manuscript,15 which was not completed, the shaykh points out that
the nafs (ego) tries to overwhelm knowledge with ignorance and incompetence and, no
matter how hard you try to repel it, the soul or human desires are always able to deceive
you. And if you try to perceive and understand it, it defies you by being invisible. The
shaykh portrays the nafs as a petite body that clings to the limbs, just like water clings
to a green plant. He also alludes to the benefits of the nafs, the hardness of the heart,
cleansing of the outer and inner self, and consciousness of ones self publicly and
privately. He states that religion only becomes victorious through the pious awliya, and
discusses the world of spirits and souls, its strengths and weaknesses, its delicateness and
heaviness and how to bring harmony between the two. He explains that sins are to the
heart like poison is to the body, causing harm on various levels. Then he uses parables
and stories to explain the results of committing sins and the harm it brings. Some of the
outcomes of sin are the prevention of the light of knowledge, the prevention of suste-
Al-Shaykh al-Kabir also speaks about tawhid and its divisions, such as the unity of Allahs
qualities, names and actions. He extracts all the creeds from the chapter al-Ikhlas
(Chapter 112 of the Quran) and explains the status of spirituality, as well as the great
name of Allah. He discusses when the reality of faith is realised in a person, and
whether spiritual essence and the nature of a person are physical or abstract.
Then he returns to a discussion on seeking knowledge and things that bring about
taqwa (consciousness of Allah) consciousness of Allah, things that impede the process
of taqwa, types of innovations, the heart being the container of every presence, and
conditions and ailments of the heart and the limbs. He also discusses in detail division
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or
Lubb al-albab fi haqaiq al-sunna wa al-kitab
THE CORE OF ALL CORES REGARDING THE REALITIES OF
THE PROPHETIC TRADITION AND THE BOOK
The shaykh wrote this two-volume manuscript17 after some of his students asked him
to clarify the phenomenon of rain clouds, which form part of the hidden things.18 He
responded by adding all realities and precisions required from such a work in clarifying
the realities of the rain clouds, rain, lightning, thunder and the land of the unseen, and
refuting the ideologies of those who go astray.19
In the first volume he embarks on a 245-page discussion of clouds, their meanings, their
formation, the time of their formation and peoples fears and apprehensions when they
dont come in time. Then he speaks about storms and water and their benefits, the jinn
and their existence, and what is specific to this umma regarding the criteria of hadith
and its narration. He also discusses the similarities between humans and animals, the
difference between internal and external waters, different types of earth, types of inspi-
ration, and types of speech (essential, explicit and implicit).
He discusses the stars and what was said about them in the Torah, the 12 towers and
their division into 28 stations, every tower having two-and-a-third stations, and these
towers are divided into 360 degrees, every tower having 30 degrees that the sun passes
once every year and by it an orbit is completed, and the moon completes a cycle in 28
days, and why they are called towers.20 He also speaks about the bee and how nectar is
used, as well as about the objectives of the Quran and the sciences extracted from it.
This manuscript21 consists of two volumes. In the introduction to the first volume the
shaykh points out the reason for writing the work. He then starts by speaking about two
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litigants who appear in front of a judge; the second litigant has no evidence. The judge
passes a verdict while his eyes are metaphorically tightly shut against the facts. The
shaykh then goes on to describe types of bribery, the person who pays it, the one who
accepts it and its danger to society; the judiciary and what the responsibility of the com-
munity is when a judge is unjust; trust keeping and what it entails; ignorance; the prohib-
ition against plundering; giving gifts to witnesses; and the four conditions pertaining to
appearing in front of a judge: equality between the two litigants; equality in intention,
stopping greed that is current and that can occur in the future; and making a firm
decision. Some narrations mention a fifth condition (which is unknown).
He also discusses the principle of halal; the prohibition against consuming peoples wealth
wrongfully; the reality of fiqh; charging a fee for work done; justice and its conditions;
innovations; types of intuition; the role played by the heads of a tribe in a community;
mocking religious ordainments such as usury;22 acceding to oppression; taking bribes;
fanaticism and deceit; breaking or violating trust; the consequences of certain calamities,
especially the calamity of fanaticism that may destroy a village. Here he explains that
Allah gave a dispensation for everything except four things: dhikr; fulfilling a trust; justice;
and honouring agreements. He discusses this extensively, so much so that he goes into
a discussion of certain doubtful areas such as the use of tobacco. Then he discusses
involvement with that which is abominable; attaching importance to responsibility;
taking care of subordinates; the just ruler and calamities that can be anticipated when
a ruler is unjust; protecting the youth by establishing workshops for artisanship;
showing compassion to all creation; and punishments and beating.
In the second volume he discusses what is recommended for rulers, leaders, governors
and judges; electing ministers; affording good, sincere advice and counselling; and
having good employees who are pious and truthful. Then he discusses the crime of false
testimony and different trades such as tailoring, agriculture, horsemanship, well digging,
This manuscript23 discusses sura al-fatiha (Chapter 1 of the Quran) what it contains,
its titles, its disciplines, sciences extracted from it, and so on. The shaykh explains that
sura al-fatiha consists of various subjects such as tawhid, the greatness of the names and
qualities of Allah, the secrets of the letters,24 special features of the names and shapes
in the Quran, historical knowledge and legal rulings. Then he discusses the fatiha and
its correct articulation in detail: truthfulness and its signs; confronting Satan and his
assistants; the best charity is the charity of water; discussion on usury; ignorance is the
gravest sin; the rights of relatives; the meaning of worship; praiseworthy and blame-
worthy innovations; the meaning of success; humility in prayer; humility of the limbs;
and a chapter on what is indicated in the fatiha pertaining to the names of Allah.
With the praise of Allah and His assistance in accomplishing our objectives, the
book al-Maqsur wa al-mamdud has increased in beauty and splendor with this
The manuscript was completed in 1786 and contains approximately 200 pages. It was
printed for the first time in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and edited by Dr Mamun
Muhammad Ahmad.26
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Al-Ilm al-nafi
THE BENEFICIAL KNOWLEDGE
This manuscript27 speaks about the conditions of the heart; devotion to dhikr, benefits
and types of dhikr; honouring agreements; the benefits of advice; intention; gratitude;
the actions of the limbs;28 the consequences of bad character; a discussion of the
prophetic saying Religion is advice; and the grand status of the saints.
This manuscript29 is a refutation of al-Mukhtar ibn Bawn Sahib al-Ihmirar, who rejected
the miracles of the saints (the shaykh had also refuted Ibn Bawn in several other poems
before he wrote this manuscript30). The manuscript looks critically at the reality of a
friend of Allah (a saint), who he is, how he became a saint, the saints miracles, and the
difference between these unusual events and istidraj (something unusual committed by
a sinful person). The manuscript contains many examples of the miracles of the
prophets and the companions, and the shaykh gives an in-depth explanation of these
using Quranic proofs, prophetic statements and convincing Sufi expressions. It is
worth mentioning that he was able to convince Ibn Bawn to such an extent that the
two of them exchanged brotherly letters and poems of love. Ibn Bawn repented and
took back everything he had rejected pertaining to the miracles of the saints.
This is a very valuable manuscript31 about tawhid and prophetic history. It deals with
the following topics: the oneness of Allah and understanding this without exaggeration
or negligence; the beginning of time; astronomy; the birth of the Prophet; the
This manuscript34 in the handwriting of Nuh ibn al-Tahir and his brother discusses
the following topics: admonitions; guidance; cleanliness; beautifying and showing
compassion to the self; sincerity; complete covenants; people of patience and right-
eousness at the time of a calamity; honouring agreements; brotherhood in Islam; types
of bounties; extravagance; eagerness; moderation; guiding the foolish; goodness toward
neighbours; the reality and etiquette of supplication; the danger of free mixing between
men and women; miserliness; the unjust ruler; the sin of a scholar; seeking of
knowledge; the importance of the remembrance of Allah; an explanation of how Allah
mentioned the five daily prayers in a single verse (Quran 30: 1718: Glory be to Allah
when you enter into the night and into the morning); and Allahs greatest name.
This two-volume manuscript35 admonishes and reminds religious fanatics of the truth
and refutes those who brand Muslims as unbelievers. It also includes information on the
different religious sects and alludes to numerous arguments between these sects.
This manuscript36 explains the meaning of a wird and its linguistic and technical origin,
discusses revelation and inspiration, and presents proof that shows that the litanies are
taken from the Quran and prophetic statements. Other topics covered are: supplication
and its etiquette; the miracles of the saints; honouring and respecting scholars, and the
This manuscript38 describes a shaykh who guides (al-murabbi the spiritual master who
initiates and guides the seeker into the spiritual path and quest). It is very similar to al-
Kawkab al-waqqad, and is in fact found as an attachment to that manuscript.
Ajwiba Labat
THE RESPONSE OF LABAT
One copy of this manuscript39 can be found at the Ahmed Baba Institute; another is
held by al-Sayyid Bad ibn Muhammad al-Kunti in Amkawal. The manuscript is also
called al-Ajwiba al-Labatiyya (The Labati Responses/Answers). It contains answers to
some questions that were posed by his student Shaykh Labat, and gives information
about kinds of medicine and medicines suitable for specific ailments, the virtue of
marriage, the etiquette of husband and wife, the evil person, predestination, remem-
brance and its etiquette, the ruling of some thoughts of the heart (i.e. how one will be
judged for ones secret thoughts), the etiquette of a follower (murid), the virtue of
knowledge, trust in Allah and perseverance.
This manuscript41 contains answers concerning the ethics of the teacher and of teaching
and learning. It also discusses these topics: the words of the Quran; that which the
teacher instructs the student pertaining to cleanliness, prayer, names (such as the
names of the months); the ruling of dry ablution used for the recital of the Quran;42
and the ruling on following the actions of a scholar. The shaykh explains that it is
permissible for a legally responsible adult to leave off the learning of the individual
obligations43 only in order to learn the Quran, and then discusses the prophetic saying,
There is no prayer for the neighbour of the mosque except in the mosque.
This manuscript45 is different to the other legal works because it is not arranged
according to the chapters of Islamic law, as was the norm. It covers approximately 45
issues pertaining to education, the acquisition of wealth, marriage, teaching, the
etiquette of a man towards his household, the reality of brotherhood, ascetism, paying
alms, the judiciary, leadership, laws of commerce, advanced trade, seclusion, suppli-
cation of decision,46 the status of the purity of the water that comes from a well and
other important issues.
Fatwa fi shan al-damm al-mustaqirr fi al-jawf bad al-dhabh (Fatwa on Blood that
Remains Inside an Animal After its Slaughter).
Manzuma fi al-istisqa (Didactic Poem on Praying for Rain).
al-Muthallath al-Kunti (The Kunti Triangle). This triangle an esoteric triangle used
in Islamic numerology/astrology was commented upon by Shaykh Sayyid
Muhammad al-Kunti, who is also the compiler.
al-Manzuma al-musamma bi al-siham al-musaddada (A Didactic Poem Called the
Accurate Arrows). This is a very useful supplication as a defence against enemies.
Qasida sard al-masaha (title not translatable into English). Some say this poem is by
Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad.
Qasida li al-shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar al-Kunti fi al-waz wa al-irshad wa tarbiya al-awlad
wa huquq al-azwaj (A Poem of Sayyid al-Mukhtar al-Kunti Pertaining to Advice,
Guidance, Rearing of Children and the Rights of Spouses). Its beginning reads: When
will you wake up and your heart is disillusioned? And you will gain in years and
months.
al-Jadwal al-Kunti fi al-fal bi istikhraj al-ayat al-quraniyya (The Kunti Table of Luck
Through an Extraction of Certain Quranic Verses). This is a table consisting of 12
columns and rows. Six Quranic verses are placed in it and they are used in istikhara.
Another table consisting of 12 columns and rows is also used for the placement of
Quranic verses or messages that will guide you.48
al-Ism al-azam (The Greatest Name [of Allah]). He taught and dictated this
manuscript to his son Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad ibn Shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar al-
Kunti. The manuscript is about the sublime position of the most sublime name of
God, namely Allah.
Fadl al-kilab ala akthar mimman yalbas al-thiyab (The Preference of Dogs Above
Most of Those Who Wear Clothes i.e. humans) I havent seen this manuscript, but
The following manuscripts are in the possession of the family of Bad ibn Muhammad
al-Kunti in northern Bram in Amkawal:
Zawal al-ilbas fi tard al-waswas al-khannas (The Dissipation of Confusion Through the
Chasing Away of the Devils Whispering).
al-Qasida al-jamia bayn al-sharia wa al-haqiqa (The All-Encompassing Poem on
[a Juxtaposition] between the Law and Reality).
Risala min al-shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar fi ikhmad al-fitan bayn al-qabail (A Treatise
of Shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar in Extinguishing the Infighting Between the Tribes).
The following manuscripts are in the possession of Bubakr Wuld Hammad in Akmahur,
northern Baran:
Wasiyyah li al-shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar fi ahwal taqallub al-zaman (Exhortation by
Shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar on the [Adverse] Conditions of the Vicissitudes of
Changing Times).
Khitaf al-ghawwas fi lujaj al-makr li al-khawwas wa irfas iras al-dukhrus al-usnus al-
akhyas al-ruqas wa hays bays ala maslub al-naja wa mukharmis al-kharnus an thalb
awliya Allah dhi al-makri wa al-adha (this title speaks of a treatise in defence of the
saints and refutes those who try to harm or disrespect them). Interpretation: al-
iras unstable difference, al-dukhrus the one who enters, al-usnus the weak,
al-akhyas a goat with a broken horn, hays bays it is said of someone who tries to
narrow a path or opportunity, al-mukharmis the one who dismisses, al-kharnus
baby swine. Only the first page of this manuscript is in the possession of Bubakr Ould
Hammad. It is said that the manuscript belongs to Shaykh Sayyid al-Mukhtar al-
Kunti, and also that it is written in Spanish.
In summary, the works of this great scholar and wise man are important not least because
of the extensive variety of subjects they address. However, many of these valuable works
are being neglected and exposed to destructive conditions. In some cases, different
sections of the same manuscript are held by different people in different places.
The successful preservation and protection of these manuscripts cannot take place unless
attention is given to the cultural, educational and administrative aspects related to
their safeguarding. Cultural centres and manuscript libraries need to be equipped with
the necessary resources and staff in these centres should receive continuous training.
The preservation of these manuscripts will be to the benefit of the whole world.
NOTES
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230
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 15
As has become clear in Chapters 13 and 14, the Arabophone qabila (tribe) of the Kunta Shaykh Sidi Muhammad left behind
were present from at least the sixteenth century in a large section of the western and a considerable number of writings
Central Sahara from the Wadi Dara region in Morocco to the Taganit in Mauritania, that have largely remained
and from the Al Tuwat in Algeria to the upper Niger River basin and played a significant unpublished, most of which consist
role in the religious, economic and political history of Timbuktu and its hinterland. of his many letters offering
theological and political advice to
The Kunta, largely involved in trans-Saharan trade (they controlled the Idjil saltworks
the leaders of his day.
in Mauritania2), were a strong presence in caravans circulating between Taoudenni,
Arawan and Timbuktu.3 Due to their mobility, they were essential in the transmission
of the propagation of the Qadiriyya brotherhoods throughout the SaheloSahara,
having been involved in a large number of regional tribal and political conflicts. The
Kunta were spiritual mentors, chaplains and mediators to the principal groups (Tuaregs,
Peuls, Arma, Moors) involved to various extents in the public biography of Timbuktu,
and even appeared to exercise a quasi-sovereignty (at least spiritual) over the city at the
time of Sidi Ahmad al-Bakkay (d.1866). Between Sidi Ahmad al-Bakkay and his
grandfather, al-Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar (d.1811) the true initiator of Kunta wealth
in the Timbuktu region was al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad (d.1826), the father of al-
Bakkay and chronicler of the family.
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad left behind a considerable number of writings that have
largely remained unpublished, even if they nourished many works devoted to the
religious and political history of the region.4 To my knowledge, the only fairly signi-
ficant university work written about him is the doctoral thesis presented in 1977 by
Abdallah wuld Mawlud wuld Daddah, at the Universit de Paris-IV Sorbonne.5
In this chapter, I will first provide a brief overview of the Kunta and then deal more
specifically with the religious, intellectual and political role of Shaykh Sidi
The earliest written references that we have of the Kunta and of their presence in
north-west Africa date back to the middle of the fifteenth century,6 but the traditions
of this Saharan tribe endeavour to connect it with a distant and prestigious Arabic
origin, specifically the descendants of Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri.7
also find scattered and widespread details on the history and genealogical organisation
of this qabila in various other sources: other texts of Sidi Muhammad (in particular in
his Kitab al-taraif [The Book of the Rare (Knowledge)] which will be dealt with further
on, as well as in his many letters), those of his father Sidi al-Mukhtar (Kitab al-minna
[The Book of the Accomplished Desire]), and even in the writings of their disciples.8
Let us briefly summarise the account provided by al-Risala al-ghallawiyya, without being
overly concerned about the uncertainties and contradictions affecting its historical
content. The important thing is that it provides the foundations of legitimacy, the
explanation of the genealogical and geographic subdivisions of the Kunta and the
journey that led a large number of them to settle in the hinterland of Timbuktu.
According to al-Ghallawiyya the Kunta had a single ancestor, Uqba ibn Nafi, the
Muslim conqueror of North Africa and the founder of Qayrawan. Still according to this
source, Uqba conquered Ghana and seized the town of Biru the future Walata, well-
known centre of trans-Saharan trade and one-time rival of Timbuktu where two
major ancestors of the Kunta were buried (al-Aqib, son of Uqba, and Sidi Ahmad al-
Bakkay al-Kabir). The Tuwat is presented as an essential point of reference in the
movement south-west of the ancestors of the Kunta. Al-Ghallawiyya repeatedly cites
the tombs of the Kuntas ancestors along their journey until the tomb of Sidi
Muhammad al-Kunti al-Kabir, who was buried, according to this account, in Fask in the
north-west of present-day Mauritania. It seems that it is from Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti
al-Kabir that the qabila gets its name (Kunta), which he owes to his maternal grand-
father Alam b. Kunt from the Sanhaja tribe of the Abdukkil to which the name
Kunt belonged.
It is nonetheless from Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti al-Kabir, and mainly from his son, Sidi
Ahmad al-Bakkay, whose death is recorded in the epistle of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad
as being in 920 hijra (about 1514), that the story of the Kunta began to shift from myth
to plausible genealogical and factual consideration.
The reason given by Shaykh Sidi Muhammad10 for this separation was a conflict which
broke out between the Awlad Malluk al-Bid and the Awlad Malluk al-Kihil and which
gradually mobilised the whole tribe into two rival groups around Sidi Ways, the son of
Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti al-Saghir (ancestor of the Awlad Bu-Sayf), and Sidi al-Wafi,
the son of Sidi Umar al-Shaykh (ancestor of the Awlad al-Wafi, to which Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad belonged, hence the nisba of al-Wafi11 he sometimes gave himself).
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For fear that the rivalry between these two camps would degenerate into a civil war
with unforeseeable consequences, a territorial divide was decided upon. Sidi Umar al-
Shaykh and his descendants travelled from the Sagya al-Hamra and its Atlantic shore
(Zbar) to the Hmada and to the Argshash, as far as Wadi al-Shabb in the east of Tuwat.
They devoted themselves to trade in the lower Sus, the Dara and the Tuwat as far as
Sijilmasa. When they settled in the Argshash and its vicinity, they organised caravans
to the country of the blacks (al-sudan), some of them going to Timbuktu and to the
black Sudan (al-sudan al-kihil): Katsina, Gobir and Hausa.12 The descendants of Sidi
Muhammad al-Kunti al-Saghir settled around the southern border of the Sagya al-
Hamra, in Tiris and in the Adrar, as far as the Taganit and the Agan.
The Kunta of the east, particularly the Awlad al-Wafi to which the family of Shaykh
Sidi Muhammad belonged, were naturally the most directly involved in the economic,
cultural and political life of Timbuktu, even if on the surface the movement of the tribal
asabiyya networks and their interweaving quickly spread alliances, enmities and
exchanges throughout the Kunta world wherever its Saharan fabric was involved. The
spread of the economic and religious influence of the Kunta within the hinterland of
Timbuktu, and their increasing hold over the trade of salt from Taoudenni, did not fail to
produce clashes. The diplomatic ability of the initiators of their regional wealth Sidi
al-Mukhtar, Sidi Muhammad, al-Bakkay which was mostly based on their scientific and
religious authority, enabled them to successfully face their adversaries. Committed to
defending the interests of their close community and to preserving what they believed to
be the good of the whole Muslim umma, the shaykhs of the Kunta also deployed a large-
scale activity of intercession and mediation within the groups which exercised some form
of influence in the region of Timbuktu and in both its nearby and remote hinterland.
Having mostly been educated in Tuareg camps and introduced to the Qadiriyya by a
noteworthy religious scholar belonging to this community (Sidi Ali b. al-Najib13),
Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar, and his son Sidi Muhammad after him, also became involved
in the internal affairs of the Tuaregs (intertribal wars, inheritance disputes, etc.), as well
as in their relationship with Timbuktu and with the groups that had formed part of its
history, especially the ArmaSonghay and the Peuls.
The Tadmakkat Tuaregs were held in a position of quasi-vassalage by the Arma for a
long period of time but they managed to reverse the power relationship in their favour
beginning with the harsh defeat inflicted on the Arma in Taghia in May 1737.14 From
this date, and for several decades, they asserted themselves as major participants in the
politics and military life of Timbuktu and its hinterland in the upper Niger River basin.
The assassination of their chief, Ughmar, by the Arma resulted in the siege of Timbuktu
in 1755. Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar successfully assisted the Tadmakkat in lifting the
siege. He had intervened in the inheritance disputes that arose after the deaths of
Ughmar and his son and successor Abtiti, and for this reason Sidi Muhammads Kitab
al-taraif presented him as the true orchestrator of the complicated system of successions
within the Iwillemmeden (the different Tuareg tribes). Sidi Muhammad also credited
Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar with a decisive influence over the devolution of the chief-
tainship among the Brabish, with whom the Kunta sometimes had a difficult
relationship, mainly because of the tax pressure they placed on trade to Timbuktu.
The Tuaregs were not always peaceful and intense friction existed, particularly with the Books formed a crucial item of
Kal Antasar, well after the death of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar and the accession of trade throughout West Africa.
This highly annotated manu-
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad. It was with the latter that the Kuntas contacts with the other
script would have been greatly
ethno-cultural communities of the region, particularly with the Peuls of Macina, prized.
experienced their most significant development. The Peuls were more distant geo-
graphically than the nearby Tuaregs but this did not prevent Shaykh Sidi Muhammad
from interceding with the leaders of the Peul jihad at the beginning of the nineteenth
century the jihads took place in Sokoto and Macina in order to respond to legal
concerns they raised, to pacify a conflict involving his customers or disciples, or to
advise them. Thus, in the work entitled al-Futuhat al-qudsiyya bi al-ajwiba al-Fullaniyya
(The Blessed Triumphs or the Fulani Responses), written in response to 24 questions
asked by Ahmadu Lobbo, Sidi Muhammad provided the outline for a kind of Islamic
constitution for the Peul state that was being established. These letters to influential
lineage chiefs such as Hammadi Galadio and Nuhum Tahiru (Nuh b. at-Tahir) regarding
their disputes with Ahmadu Lobbo demonstrate the extent of his influence, and the
importance of the mediation activity he conducted among the Peul groups gravitating
around the armed preaching of the founder of the Peul Islamic state of Macina. The
This chapter will not, however, explore the many occasions on which the Sidi al-
Mukhtar family became involved in disputes between the Kunta and the western
Moorish world where certain of their disciples played a significant role15 due to the
relative geographical distance of this area from Timbuktu. We turn instead to some
considerations regarding the life of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad and his works.
The complete education of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad, and significant moments in his
career, took place behind the scenes and under the supervision of his father, Shaykh
Sidi al-Mukhtar. While it was traditional in this area for young students to take a long
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journey to visit the most well-known teachers and schools in the region and to make
the pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam, gleaning lessons and ijazat along the way, Sidi
Muhammad never seems to have left his native Azawad and the only teacher he recog-
nised was his father.
Even if we do not have any accurate information on his curriculum, it was most probably
based on that of his father, of which he gives us an ample description at the beginning
of the monumental biography he wrote on him. These were the studies recommended by
all the SaharanSahelian schools of the time: science of the Arabic language (grammar,
lexicography, metrics, rhetoric, literary history); the Quran and its interpretations; the
hadith, taught mainly around six sihah (authentic compilations of prophetic traditions)
in the Sunnite tradition; Malikite Asharite fiqh, based on classic works (mainly the
Mukhtasar of Khalil b. Ishaq and the Risala of Ibn Abi Zayd) and their commentators;
and the history of classical Islam, where the sira plays a prominent role. Sufism and the
works of the great inspirers of brotherhood movements (al-Junayd, Ibn Arabi, al-
Ghazali, al-Suhrawardi, etc.) also formed a part of the education of Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad, whose father was responsible for introducing the Qadiriyya into
SaharanSahelian Africa. Works on adab and on wisdom, elements of arithmetic, logic,
medicine and astronomy completed an education that was in full compliance with the
educational heritage of his pious ancestors.
But the most precious education that Sidi Muhammad received from his father was
undoubtedly the practical side of managing a brotherhood establishment, the learning
of patience and wisdom and also the mindfulness to be used when conducting the many
mediation sessions and interventions required of brotherhood leaders in a particularly
unstable universe that mostly escaped the power of any centralised authority.
The works of Sidi Muhammad largely reflected the place that the aforementioned
political and ethical concerns took in his life. The most significant part of the legacy
Abdallah ould Mawlud19 provides a succinct description of these letters, collected by al-
Shaykh Sidiyya al-Kabir. I am using the same corpus, which consists of 47 letters copied by,
or at the request of, this eminent disciple of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad, and the original of
which is preserved in the manuscript library of Ahl al-Shaykh Sidiyya in Boutilimit.
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These letters, very rarely dated but all probably chronologically situated between 1811
(the date of his fathers death) and 1826 (the date of his own death), are varied in
length and in subject matter. They range in length from half a page, in which a disciple
is asked to hasten the return of an expected caravan, to a 60-page treatise on power in
which the shaykh provides an explanation to his addressee on the proper code of
behaviour that a Muslim emir should observe. An appreciable number of these letters
were sent to high-ranking Peuls, especially to Ahmadu Lobbo, the founder of the
Muslim state of Macina. In a long epistle (23 folios) sent to Lobbo in 1823, Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad pretended to be an enthusiastic defender of the jihad which would soon
cause the partisans of Lobbo to seize the upper Niger River basin and Timbuktu.20 In
other instances, Shaykh Sidi Muhammad wrote to Lobbo asking him to enforce the
judgment of a qadi in favour of one of his Peul disciples regarding the sharing of a
controversial inheritance, and to attempt mediation in favour of his politico-religious
client, Galadio.
He also wrote to noteworthy Tuaregs for various reasons: to al-Nur, sultan of Kal Away,
for instance, to request the return of plundered property, and a long epistle sent to the
sultan of the Iwillemmeden, Kawa b. Amma b. Ag ash-Shaykh b. Muhammad al-
Bashir and his qadi, al-Salih b. Muhammad al-Bashir, to alert them to the machinations
of al-Jaylani a religious agitator who appeared among the Kal Dinnig in around
1800 21 and his claims that he was the long-awaited mahdi.
The close and distant relatives of the shaykh, particularly his brother Baba Ahmad,
who left to settle among the Moorish tribes of the Hawz, were also largely involved in
his epistolary activity. These tribes, and the many disciples that the shaykh included in
them, also received a significant number of his letters. Shaykh Sidi Muhammad thus
wrote a very long letter to the jamaa (congregation) of the Aghlal of the Hawz to
denounce the aggression of Ahl Sidi Mahmud, together with the Idawish, against his
The covered courtyard of Kunta cousins in the Tagant. In this letter he developed his vision of the history of the
Jingerey-Ber Mosque. Kunta, and energetically denied the claims attributed to the chief of Kuntas adversaries
Abd Allah wuld Sidi Mahmud (d.1839) to make himself imam, at the same time
specifying what qualities a candidate for the imamate should have, as well as the
essential prerequisites for the legitimacy of his candidature. He also wrote to the jamaa
of the Funti,22 within the framework of the same conflict, to request their intervention
on the side of the Kunta. Still in the interest of the factions of his tribe that migrated
west of the Azawad, he wrote a long letter to the jamaa of the Ahl Buradda to refute
their claims to monopolise the control of these regions to the detriment of the Kunta.
Al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad took over from his father as the head of the zawiya
Qadiriyya that his father had created in the Malian Azawad, around the wells of al-
Mabruk and Bujbayha, some 300 kilometres north-east of Timbuktu. Trans-Saharan
trade was essential to the survival of this undertaking. The political autonomy given to
him by his position, unusual in relation to all the powers that exercised some form of
influence in the region, gave his zawiya a role of intercession and mediation which, in
addition to the moral obligation connected with his spiritual vocation, would
constitute, together with actual teaching, one of Shaykh Sidi Muhammads main
concerns. The power of influence that he endeavoured to generate and maintain was
leaders of the Sokoto, one which features among the body of letters mentioned earlier, Sidi Muhammad says, The best
will enable me to illustrate this aspect of the intellectual and political activity of (khayru) sovereigns (al-umara) are
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad. those who frequent scholars (ulama);
the worst scholars (sharru al-ulama)
It is a document of 28 folios. It is handwritten in an elegant, narrow Maghribi script
are those who frequent sovereigns.
and has 30 lines per page, in a 16 cm x 11 cm format. It is undated but our guess is that
it was probably written between 1811, when Sidi Muhammad took the reins of the
brotherhood establishment created by his father, and 1817, the year of the death of his
principal addressee, Uthman dan Fodio.
As in all the other writings of Sidi Muhammad, this letter reflects a sound knowledge
of the history of classical and even contemporary Islam, from which he took his
examples and found his models for political and moral behaviour. However, he failed to
display the least originality in relation to the literature dealing with the same themes
the mirrors for princes23 and from which he borrowed all his topoi.
Moderation and balance, associated with the fundamental values of fairness (adl) and
compassion towards the weak and oppressed, within the framework of a strict adherence
to legal standards defined by Sunnite Islam, is the dominant tone of this document,
which is completely marked by the Islamic duty of sound advice (nasiha).
The letters addressed to dan Fodio, to his brother Abdullahi and to his son
Muhammad, just like the classical texts that inspired them particularly al-Tibr al-
masbuk fi nasaih al-muluk (The Found Pure Gold or The Wise Advice Given to the
Kings) of al-Ghazali, al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya (The Government Rules) and Adab al-
dunya wa al-din (The Right Behaviour in Mundane and Religious Affairs) of al-
Mawardi and Siraj al-muluk (The Kings candelabra) of al-Turtushi first insist on the
duty of nasiha, which is incumbent on the alim (scholar) towards the prince and
towards the emir. The celebration of knowledge and scholars and of their role among
The epistle then continues with canonical examples of a good ruler/prince taken from
the tradition of certain venerable figures of the political past of the Muslim world (the
Prophet himself, the rashidun specifically Umar b. al-Khattab, Umar b. Abd al-Aziz,
etc.), and goes on to reveal a collection of commonalities in the paradigmatic vision of
the ideal Muslim political authority and its methods of intervention as elaborated by
both the scholarly and the popular traditions of Muslim societies.
I wrote elsewhere24 of this vision of legitimate political authority and of its methods of
legitimising the sultanic culture in Islamic countries. By this I refer to something that
goes beyond politics and religion and encompasses the entire scope of norms and values
of the societies concerned, as it is reflected mainly in the proverbs, tales, poetry, works
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of ethics and wisdom, and so on. I would even suggest that this scope contains a certain
unity, of which the text by Shaykh Sidi Muhammad, who mentions the predecessors
cited earlier, shows the continuity. The unity in question is particularly expressed in a
collection of commonalities (the rules of good princely behaviour) that has been
repeated indefinitely since at least the eighth century,25 the model for which is provided
by the Quran, the canonical collections of hadith, the accounts of the edifying and
marvellous lives of the great beings before Islam (somewhat mythical and individu-
alised giants, genies, kings and elders of long ago), prophets and legendary figures from
the Old and the New Testament, and from Islam (companions, caliphs, viziers,
generals, recognised interpreters of the dogma, mystics and aesthetes of renown), and
tales and legends (Kalila wa dimna, the 1001 Nights). The lesson that Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad teaches his correspondents of Sokoto falls completely within this heritage.
The letter addressed to dan Fodio mentioned earlier thus opens very classically with a
development devoted to the theme of the relationship between scholars and princes,
around the duty of giving the sort of advice that would lead to, or revive, good Muslim
behaviour. Sidi Muhammad refers to the hadith which says that religion is sound advice
(al-din al-nasiha). Leaders are reminded to return the good that Allah gave them when
he gave them power, by treating the flock (raiyya) he entrusted to them with fairness.
And al-Shaykh Sidi Muhammad specifies that it is the ulamas duty to fulfil their
religious obligation by reminding the leaders of the advice above.
The ideal, however, is that the princes seek the good advice and the company of the
ulama when necessary, rather than the other way around. A hadith quoted by Shaykh
Sidi Muhammad says, The best (khayru) sovereigns (al-umara) are those who frequent
scholars (ulama); the worst scholars (sharru al-ulama) are those who frequent sover-
eigns. So the good alim should flee the court and its corruption and the good sultan
is he who continues to hire the scholar and imitate him in his quest for (religious)
the impossibility of escaping his royal responsibility, may, following the example of
accumulation, of summation, of
Mawlay Sliman, continue practising his pious exercises in secret, away from the greedy
virtues and of vices which he
and corrupt eyes of the courtesans.
contributes towards promoting among
The exercise of power, wrote Shaykh Sidi Muhammad to his Peul readers, is not merely these subjects. Subjects take on the
laying down a set of pernicious restrictions with necessarily disastrous moral conse- behaviour of the prince. The sultan is
quences. In principle, it is an ambiguous activity, which can be both a source of the moral seat of authority, directly
perdition and/or a channel for exceptional moral elevation. This is because power is accountable for the behaviour of his
both useful and dangerous. The general nature of the sovereigns mission in other subjects; he multiplies his own wrongs
words, the responsibility he exercises towards his subjects makes him an operator of by favouring their bad behaviour and,
accumulation, of summation, of virtues and of vices which he contributes towards in reverse, increases his merits if he
promoting among these subjects. Because, as Shaykh Sidi Muhammad says, quoting an encourages them to adopt proper
old ArabicMuslim refrain, subjects take on the behaviour of the prince.26 The sultan behaviour.
is the moral seat of authority, directly accountable for the behaviour of his subjects; he
multiplies his own wrongs by favouring their bad behaviour and, in reverse, increases
his merits if he encourages them to adopt proper behaviour. Hence the celebration of
the fair sultan (adil) and of historical characters whom he is supposed to incarnate:
Umar b. al-Khattab and Umar b. Abd al-Aziz, in particular. Al-Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad repeats that after the various mirrors for the prince that inspired him,
there is no higher moral position or greater proximity to Allah apart from the
prophets and angels than that of sultan adil. A hadith he quotes compares the
efficiency of the fair sovereign to that of the Quran: Allah separates (yaziu) with the
sultan [that] which he does not separate (ma la yaziu) with the Quran.27
The considerable privilege and dignity conferred on the fair prince through his upright
behaviour and the rewards in the afterlife to which they are supposed to open the way,
have their opposite in the terrible threats weighing down on the iniquitous sovereign
who allows himself to be guided in his behaviour by his bad tendencies, his instincts for
pleasure or, even worse, by the pernicious advice from people in his court. Here Shaykh
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad advises the princes to refuse luxury and ostentation and to
mistrust their entourages. He denounces, as did those who inspired him from the
mirrors of princes, tahajjub (hiding away), or the temptation to remove themselves
from the sight of their subjects/dependants (raiyya), at risk of becoming the prisoners
of the chamberlains and other not always reliable intermediaries.
And if the sultan is the shadow of God on earth another topos of the sultanic vision
of the world it is because he imposes a cosmic order where people are merely indirect
agents. In places, sultanic literature in whose wake Sidi Muhammad speaks to the
emirs of Sokoto suggests a proto-Hegelian way of reading history, around the themes
of imminent justice and of the history of the world as the trial of the world. It suggests
that, after all, people ordinarily only have the governments they deserve. Kings are
independent of people and are instruments in the hands of Allah, sovereign of sover-
eignty. A hadith of the Prophet attributed to Malik b. Dinar and quoted by Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad says:
I am the king of kings (malik al-muluk). I hold the hearts of kings in my hand (qulub
al-muluk bi-yadi). If you obey me, you invite mercy (jaaltum alaykum rahma), if you
disobey me, you bring punishment on yourselves (niqma). Do not busy your tongues
with abuse against kings, but instead repent before Allah, he will fold them (yuti-
fuhum) over you.29
People may certainly play a part in the softening that Allah, the only holder of power,
wishes to imprint in the heart of the princes governing them, but they have no direct
influence over their management of public matters, if this adjective has meaning in
this context.
Somewhat linked to the supervision of kings by God, who features as a divine concession
to the exercise of a sultanic authority that is partly outside divine action, is the affir-
The secular theme of adl, of fairness, an essential theme throughout sultanic literature
as well as in the epistle of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad, is more specifically linked to this
timeless power of the sultan, to the perpetuity of this power, regardless of the religious
nature of the person exercising it. It is expressed, with variations, in the following
circular expression, written by Shaykh Sidi Muhammad:32
Hence celebration in all its forms, directed at the addressees of the shaykh, of the fair
sovereign, be it a Muslim leader or a prince of another denomination. Hence the
intimate association established between his physical and moral state and the good
health and balance of the world. A true shaker of the cosmos, the ideal sovereign of the
sultanic representation of power is both the moral sum of all the princes of the world
before him and a physical centre of the universe of which he adjusts the rhythm of time.
After so many others, Shaykh Sidi Muhammad wrote al-Sultan al-zaman (The Sultan is
the Age),33 to mean that history is subject to the behaviour and good will of the
sovereign of the moment. The theatre of the state of which he is both the great impre-
sario and the only star, and the celebrations and commemorations he organises, aim to
tune the (public or private) events of his life to match the cosmic deployment of the
universe. The epistle of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad offers a metaphor of the world as a
human organism of which the sultan would be its brain; the vizier, the heart; the
viziers subordinates, the hands; and the masses (al-raiyya), the feet; with fairness
(adl) making up its soul.34 It is not surprising that the sultan is presented as the
operator of the failure or of the universal ruin of his time, the guarantor of the fertility
or the channel of the misery of his kingdom.
fair man, or the brutal and sudden punishment of those failing to obey sultanic laws).
Ideally, he should be able to say to each of his subjects: I know what you ate last night
and how you obtained the clothes you wear.37
As in all sultanic culture, the epistle of Shaykh Sidi Muhammad shows the sultans
periodic incursions into the world of ordinary people in the form of a duplication of the
sultan himself, appearing as a kind of Janus of the social condition, leading a luxurious
public life among the important people of his court, and an ascetic and parsimonious
private life on the underside of this gleaming decor, where he sometimes takes on small
jobs to earn an honest living without violating the resources of the treasury chamber
(bayt al-mal).38
The image of the pastorate, combining the idea of belonging to the flock and the
shepherds intimate knowledge of it with the shepherds responsibility to show it the
right way without denying himself the use of its products, summarises a large part of this
vision of power, and it also returns like a leitmotif in sultanic literature. Shaykh Sidi
Muhammad quotes a well-known hadith:39
You are all shepherds (kullukum rain) and all accountable for the object of your
protection (wa kullukum masul an raiyyatih): the imam, who is the shepherd of men
(ala al-nasi rain) is accountable for this sheepfold (raiyya); a man is the shepherd
(rai) of the members of his family (ahla baytih) and he is accountable for his
sheepfold; the woman is the shepherdess (raaiyya) of the members of her husbands
household (ahla bayti zawjiha) and of her children (waladiha) and she is accountable
for it (wa hiyya masula anhum); a mans slave (abd al-rajul) is the shepherd (rai) of
his masters property and he is responsible for it. You are certainly all shepherds and
are all accountable for your sheepfold.
As a shepherd, the sultan must naturally endeavour to protect his flock against predators.
And, of course, the herd will be on the road to ruin if an assumption explicitly envisaged
by Sidi Muhammad its care falls into the hands of wolves;40 in other words, if the
sultan himself and his subordinates become agents of the destruction of the raiyya. This
is because salvation cannot come from the flock and no effective resistance can come
from it; the flock is the obedient and passive instrument of its shepherd.
In succinct form, the above were some of the essential lines of the letters written by
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad to the emirs of Sokoto. The political moral it presents may
not be original in relation to the whole of what we have called sultanic literature, but
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it nevertheless demonstrates both the scope of the Qadiri masters knowledge of this
literature and the position of murshid (guide) and of nasih (one who gives advice)
which, in compliance with the clichs of this literature, the good alim must portray
towards princes who are likely to hear his advice and take his recommendations to
heart.
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Batran AA (1971) Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti and the recrudescence of Islam in the western Sahara and the Middle Niger
c.17501811. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham
Brown WA (1969) The caliphate of Hamdullahi c.18181864. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Dakhlia J (1998) Le divan des rois. Paris: Albin Michel
Genivre J (1947) Les Kounta et leurs activits commerciales (no. 1240). Paris: Mmoire du Centre des Hautes Etudes
dAdministration Musulmane
Hamet I (1910) Littrature Arabe saharienne. Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Mditerrane 12: 194213, 380398
Ibn Khaldun A (1981) al-Muqaddima. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr
MacDougall EA (1980) The Ijil salt industry: Its role in the precolonial economy of the western Sudan. PhD thesis, University
of Birmingham
Martin AGP (1908) Les oasis sahariennes. Alger: Adolphe Jourdan
Martin AGP (1923) Quatre sicles dhistoire marocaine. Paris: Alcan
Marty P (1920-21) Etudes sur lislam et les tribus du Soudan. Paris: Leroux
al-Muqaffa A (trans.) (1982) Kitab kalila wa dimna. Beirut: Muassasat al-maarif
Muradi M (1981) Kitab al-ishara ila adab al-imara. Edition by R al-Sayyid. Beirut: Muassasat al-maarif
Nicolas F (1950) Tamesna: Les Ioullemmeden de lEst ou Touareg (Kel Dinnik). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale
Norris HT (1986) The Arab conquest of the western Sahara. London: Longman
Ould Cheikh AW (1992) al-Ansab: La qute des origines. Anthropologie historique de la socit tribale arabe. Edited by P Bonte.
Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de lhomme
Ould Cheikh AW (2003) La science au(x) miroir(s) du prince: Savoir(s) et pouvoir(s) dans lespace arabo-musulman dhier et
daujourdhui. Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Mditerrane 101/102: 129155
Stewart CC (with Stewart EK) (1973) Islam and social order in Mauritania: A case study from the nineteenth century. Oxford
African Affairs Series. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Withcomb T (1975) New evidence on the origins of the Kunta. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 38(2):
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wuld Mawlud A (1977) Shaykh Sidi Muhammad wuld al-Mukhtar al-Kunti: Contribution lhistoire politique et religieuse de
Bilad Shinqit et des rgions voisines, notamment daprs les sources arabes indites. PhD thesis, Universit de Paris-IV
Sorbonne, Paris
248
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 16
The city of Timbuktu is regarded as one of the most prominent centres in West Africa
for the diffusion of knowledge by virtue of the attention and patronage that its scholars
received from some of its rulers. This diffusion of knowledge saw periods of change that
oscillated between growth and decline. However, Timbuktu remained a pioneer in the
transmission of knowledge due to the prominence and status of its scholars, whose fame
spread far and wide.
In this chapter I address one of the luminaries of Timbuktu and Arawan Shaykh Abu al-
Khayr ibn Abd-Allah al-Arawani al-Timbukti. He, as with many other scholars, has not
enjoyed any serious and scientific study except for a few general biographies. It is hoped
that this chapter will whet the appetite of researchers and encourage them to embark upon
a serious study of the shaykh (and other neglected scholars) to highlight his prominent
role in, and contribution to, Islamic civilisation. I will introduce the shaykh by under-
taking a study of his life and his activities, as well as a discussion of his written works.
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr2 ibn Abd-Allah ibn Marzuq ibn al-Hill, follower of the Maliki
legal school and adherent of the Qadiri,3 Dardayri and Shadhili4 Sufi orders, was born
in Arawan at the turn of the fourteenth century of the Islamic hijri calendar5 and died
there in 1397 (AD 1975). He was buried in the mosque of Sayyid Ahmad ibn Salih ibn
al-Wafi ibn Ad (d.1772).
Opposite: Chalkboards like
Not much is known about Shaykh Abu al-Khayrs early childhood or of his youth
this one have been used by
except that he hails from a scholarly family that instilled in him a love of knowledge generations of students to
and learning. He began the recitation of the Quran at the hands of his brother Ali ibn practice writing in Arabic.
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 249
Abu al-Khayr memorised the Quran Abd-Allah ibn Marzuq ibn al-Hill (d.1944), an illustrious shaykh among those who
in his early childhood with Shaykh taught the recitation of the Quran in Arawan. He then read under the tutelage of
al-Talib al-Habib after only one Shaykh al-Talib al-Habib (d.1972), who was a witty scholar and well versed in the
reading, with no revision. It was a science of the correct rendition of the Quran, its calligraphy, the perfection of its ruling
feat which many of the ulama found and rendition of its different modes of reading. He was arguably the greatest scholar of
hard to believe and they therefore the sciences of the Quran of his time.
doubted his retention of the holy
Abu al-Khayr memorised the Quran in his early childhood with Shaykh al-Talib al-
book. However, when the ulama of
Habib after only one reading, with no revision. It was a feat which many of the ulama
Mauritania came to Arawan to test
found hard to believe and they therefore doubted his retention of the holy book.
him, they found him fluent and
However, when the ulama of Mauritania came to Arawan to test him, they found him
erudite not only in his rendition of the
fluent and erudite not only in his rendition6 of the Quran but in his writing of it as
Quran but in his writing of it as well.
well. He read the Khazrajiyyah7 under the tutelage of Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-
Salih al-Suqi, which the latter in turn began reading with his shaykh Amar al-Ruqadi.
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He then read under him the Alfiyyah of al-Iraqi,8 a work on the science of prophetic
traditions (ulum al-hadith). Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Salih al-Suqi then gave him
permission to narrate and teach.9 After memorising the Quran and mastering its
rulings and the art of its rendition, he studied Islamic substantive law, source method-
ology in jurisprudence, prophetic traditions, grammar, linguistics, Arabic literature,
rhetoric, logic and other disciplines under the tutelage of the jurist Shaykh Ahmad ibn
Babakr ibn al-Sayd (d.1921)10 in Arawan.
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr had many students, including: Mawlay Ahmad Babir al-Arawani
(d.1997);11 Mawlay al-Arabi ibn Mawlay Hashim; Mahamane Mahamoudou,12
popularly known as Hamu, who at the time of writing is still alive;13 Muhammad Abd-
Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Abu l-Araf al-Takni;14 al-Shaykh Umar Nasiri from the village
of Tayi next to the city of Jenne; Sidi Muhammad al-Rahmah (d.2004); Sidi Ould al-
Qadi, who at the time of writing is still alive; Bu Ali ibn Sidi Bubakr; al-Shaybani ibn
Muhammad al-Mukhtar; and Imam Ansunughu.
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr shuttled between Arawan and the city of Timbuktu, spending six
months of the year in each. He devoted his life to worship and learning. His typical day,
even in his old age, began after the dawn prayers with a complete reading of a fifth of the
Quranic exegetical work of al-Jalalayn,15 and a complete reading of al-Jazulis Dalail al-
khayrat (The Proofs of the Good). He then undertook the rest of his worship activities
and mundane tasks.
After sunrise he taught hadith, tafsir, fiqh, mantiq and other sciences. A group of ulama
used to attend these gatherings, where each took his lost gem,16 gaining knowledge in
Quranic exegesis, prophetic traditions, substantive law, syntax and the other sciences.
These gatherings were forums for disseminating knowledge, characterised by silence
and the absence of polemical debates except when the ulama asked the shaykh
something.17 His ethic was that of al-Imam al-Shafii (d.820 hijri): A scholar, unless
asked, remains silent.18
During the day he also passed judgment in disputes and attended to the giving of legal
verdicts (ifta). At times he simply sent his rosary (sibhah) to the litigants (specifically
the Bedouins) for them to reconcile and they willingly accepted his call for peace and
reconciliation. Thus he solved problems and complexities which his peers among the
ulama and other notables were unable to solve. For example, the people of Mauritania
invited three scholars two from Mauritania and one from Mali to solve the problem
of Basikunah (a dispute concerning the rights of usage of a certain well which a few
tribes in Mauritania were fighting for). However, it was when Shaykh Abu al-Khayr
dealt with the issue that the Mauritanians unanimously agreed that he alone was able
to solve the problem, which he did with cogent proofs that all the disputants accepted.
It would appear that Shaykh Abu al-Khayrs role in giving legal verdicts caused him
tremendous worries, not merely because he was a lone orphan among ignorant people
but also because of the confusion that pervaded scholarly circles the contradictory
views and verdicts that left a mufti (jurisconsult) perplexed as to which standards he
should use to judge by.19 In a letter to Muhammad Yahya ibn Salim al-Wallati
(18511936),20 Shaykh Abu al-Khayr raised the following issues:
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 251
His typical day, even in his old age, As for what follows: from the writer to the great illustrious scholar, the pious jurist,
began after the dawn prayers with a the pure God-fearing one, the aware and cleansed, our master and pole of our age
complete reading of a fifth of the Muhammad Yahya ibn Salim. The purpose of my writing to you is to ask about that
Quranic exegetical work al-Jalalayn, wherein lies my salvation for the day when [people] will be seized by the feet and
and a complete reading of al-Jazulis foreheads. Times have coerced me to fulfilling the duty of ifta as I am one and alone
Dalail al-Khayrat (The Proofs of the among ignoramuses except for a few by the grace of God, therefore enrich me with
Good). He then undertook the rest a verdict that will free me. The matter has become complicated due to the prolifer-
of his worship activities and ation of differences between the views of the scholars (May God be pleased with
mundane tasks. them and us). Is it then not permissible or necessary for any one of us to issue fatwas
except in accordance to the well-known [views] stated in the books of the [Maliki]
school? Or do we have the right to practise ifta taking into account every strong
[opinion] in the madhhab or not? And is it permissible for us to give verdicts subject
to the prevailing customs (urf) of our time knowing that we are ignorant regarding
its reality, condition, and who instituted it? The establishment of all that is an
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almost impossible task. And can the intentions and aims of the people of our time
in their [practice of] divorce and giving oaths be regarded as custom? And should
custom, where it contradicts an explicit text of Malik [ibn Anas], be discarded and
given no consideration as al-Zurqani said or not? And what if it [the urf] contradicts
a Quranic text, or prophetic tradition, and the majority opinion of the school? Give
us an answer wherein there is a soothing for our chests. Or is it preferred to discard
the institution of ifta in our time? And with the scarcity or even the non presence
of [true] scholars who should sit, or be appointed, for ifta?21
At night he resumed his educational sessions. None of this prevented him from reading
the al-Shifa of al-Qadi al-Ayad (d.1145) and spending much of his night in additional
acts of worship.
Allah had blessed Shaykh Abu al-Khayr with a bright and luminous intellect and a
retentive memory, which he used to memorise the books of jurisprudence and law, and
which granted him a deep understanding of them. He was well acquainted with all the
commentators on these works and even memorised the tafsir al-Jalalayn. As with many
of the scholars of his day, he was a walking encyclopaedia, carrying his knowledge with
him wherever he travelled. He was brilliant in tafsir and hadith, excelling in both. The
author of al-Saadah al-abadiyya aptly described him thus:
Our jurist shaykh, the standard bearer, the master of the art, the exegete, the
unrivalled scholar of Takrur,22 its jurist, teacher and mufti whose only concern is how
to benefit from knowledge and benefit othershe reached the pinnacle in the
science of tafsir and hadith in which he was unequalled.23
Abu al-Khayr was a scholar, a retainer [of texts], the proof of trustworthy reliability,
the master who was depended on to respond with religious guidance to incidents and
events and in the issuing of fatwas. He was a luminary in the sciences of hadith and A modern-day scholar teaching
all its techniques; completely capable in discerning authentic traditions and spurious at a school in Timbuktu.
ones, its paths and its finer hidden points. He was a genius in the knowledge of the
rulings [deduced] from prophetic tradition and its meanings as well as its complica-
tions. He was strong and well versed in the knowledge of its vocabulary specifically
the difficult ones, a master in the biographies of its narrators, the precise form of
their names including titles, patronyms, etc. their deaths, births, information,
tales, and holy acts (karamat). He was an imam, an authority, a firm foundation [of
knowledge], a judge, pious, thorough and meticulous in his views and actions; what
he said, ruled or commanded was not marred by hesitation or mixed feelings. He was
a paragon of patience, tranquillity, clemency and endurance.24
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 253
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr composed a complex questions at the end of the fourteenth century hijra in the land of Takrur. In
poem in praise of the wealthy Ahmad this regard he composed a poem wherein he made a supplication to God for the benefit
bin Abi l-Araf, describing him as of the shaykh. The poem extolled the virtues and the status of Shaykh Abu al-Khayr
one inspired with intense love for and the esteem in which people, both scholars and laity, held him.
the collection of manuscripts and
books, and who spent all his wealth
The shaykhs poetry
and valuables to possess them,
thereby preserving this priceless Shaykh Abu al-Khayr and other early scholars were polymaths and not limited by
Islamic heritage. specialisation in certain disciplines only. It is thus no wonder that the shaykh composed
beautiful poetry that evoked and awakened sentiments. Most of his poems were
commendations, encouragements and eulogies.25 One poem in didactic form lauds the
didactic poem of Ibn Salim al-Wallati, in which the latter summarised the Mukhtasar26
of Khalil (d.1365). In the poem Abu al-Khayr compares this work of Ibn Salim to the
sun and the moon in its illumination and clarity. He also composed a poem in praise of
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the wealthy Ahmad ibn Abi l-Araf (18641955),27 describing him as one inspired
with intense love for the collection of manuscripts and books, and who spent all his
wealth and valuables to possess them, thereby preserving this priceless Islamic heritage.
In another poem, which was an addition and decoration to a poem by al-Shaykh al-
Tijani ibn Sayyid Muhammad, he eulogises the great and erudite scholar Ahmad ibn
Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Sayd (d.1921).
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr was a contemporary of many scholars and a significant number
of jurists. His relationship with most of them was good. The few sour relationships that
did exist sprang from jealousy, rancour and rivalry. Among his contemporaries were al-
Shaykh Bhai ibn Sayyid Amar al-Kunti (18651929), with whom he corresponded on
matters of ifta and the judiciary; Shaykh Muhammad Yahya ibn Salim al-Wallati, who
acknowledged the virtue of and his preference for Shaykh Abu al-Khayr to the extent
that he became the only one allowed to write the prefaces to his books and book collec-
tions; and Shaykh al-Tijani ibn Muhammad al-Amin (d.1947) Shaykh Abu al-
Khayrs teaching colleague in Arawan who said to his students regarding Shaykh Abu
al-Khayr: Do not ask me [about anything] as long as this jurist is among us for indeed
we found our shaykhs acknowledging his virtue and superior knowledge.28 Also among
his contemporaries was Shaykh Muhammad al-Salik ibn Khayyi al-Tanwajiwiyy, the
pious scholar who wrote more than 20 books. He heaped endless praise on Shaykh Abu
al-Khayr in the prefaces of some of his books.
Then there was Shaykh Antat or Antut (d.1946), the jurist and scholar acknowledged
by the scholars of his day as the authority in syntax and who wrote a commentary on
the Manzuma of Ibn Salim, commented upon by Abu al-Khayr. Other contemporaries
were Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Abidin, second only to Shaykh Abu al-
In summary then, Shaykh Abu al-Khayr enjoyed a strong relationship with many
people: black and white, of the desert and of the Niger Bend. The gatherings to discuss
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Quranic exegesis and prophetic traditions, and the celebration of the Prophets
birthday, were all occasions when the ties of love, solidarity and mutual care were
strengthened and consolidated.
Written works
The manuscript29 consists of four folios written in a modern Sudani script. Sidi ibn
Muhammad al-Rahim and Abdan al-Sultan started writing the manuscript. It was
completed by Shaykh Abu al-Khayr who also collated it in 1962. Two pages on the
history of Tawdeni are attached to the manuscript. The manuscript deals with the
history of the establishment of the city of Arawan, transmitting Sidi Urwahs
knowledge of when Arawan was established, by whom, and its subsequent growth and
development. Sidi Urwah clarifies that Ahmad ibn Add ibn Abi Bakr built Arawan
after he left al-Suq, one or two years before the latters destruction. Ahmad ibn Add
travelled to numerous places such as Adrar, Tadararat and Talik before finally settling
in what became Arawan. There he married a woman called Fatima bint al-Firdaws from
the Amaqsharan tribe, who owned the land. However, the Amaqsharan quarrelled
amongst themselves over land rights, so Shaykh Ahmad ibn Add cursed them and
they dispersed into splinter groups.
The manuscript also refers to those families that came and settled in Arawan, such as the
Wasratawhu from al-Kabal, al-Wali al-Hashimi al-Mukhtar, the grandfather of Idwail, the
family of Bu Aliyu, Ahmad al-Saih and the Barabish. Construction in Arawan reached
its peak with the arrival of Lahib ibn Sidi ibn Muhammad ibn Ammam, as many of his
devoted followers joined him so as to receive his baraka (blessings) as well as those of
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 255
his predecessors. Assisted by the shaykh of the Barabish, Ahmad Labid, they built
houses and dug over 140 wells. The many traders from Ghadamis who descended upon
Arawan and Tuwat revived the city with commerce, trading in different commodities.
Cows, sheep, oil and other merchandise came from Timbuktu in the south.
Maktub fi al-waqf
TREATISE ON ENDOWMENTS
This manuscript30 is a treatise on religious endowments and consists of four folios written
in small but clear script. Some parts of the manuscript have been water damaged. Shaykh
Abu al-Khayr mentions the numeric value of the letters of the Arabic alphabet (for
example, the alif [corresponds to the sound a] equals 1, the ba [b] equals 2, the waw
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[w] equals 6, the ha [h] equals 5), delineating the difference in calculation between
the Islamic West31 and the Islamic East. For example, in the word ayqash the last letter
(the shin [sh]) equals 1 000 in the Islamic West whilst in the Islamic East the letter
ghayn (gh) not shin equals 1 000, hence the word aykagh instead of ayqash.
Then, he deals with Indian numerology whose calculation of the value of letters was
similar to that of the Arab West (Maghribi) calculation. He also dwells upon the
benefit of Sura al-Ikhlas (the Quranic chapter on the uniqueness of God) and how to
employ it in order to procure ones wishes and desires.
Classical Muslim scholars had the habit of stating their motive for writing a text, a
practice which Shaykh Abu al-Khayr upheld. Regarding his writing of Fath al-karim,32
he says:
Some brothers requested me to write a lucid and clear commentary on the didactic
poem by the ascetic and famous servant of God Muhammad Yahya ibn Sidi Muhammad
ibn Salim on the science of Arabic [language]. This in order to analyse its words and
complexity, to clarify its ambiguous meanings in the best possible manner in a
commendable and pleasant style that pleases the loving, affable author and offends the
jealous wrongdoer. I, given the meagre resources and my ill qualification in this art,
responded to this request because of the reward in that and the great virtue, requesting
from Allah acceptance and guidance and to lead me to the straightest path.
The manuscript consists of 86 folios and is original, that is, written by the author in the
Sahrawi font. The date of its authorship and copying is not mentioned nor, as far as I
This accredited manuscript33 consists of ten folios of which the last two are a
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commentary and reiteration of the authenticity and correctness of the proofs that Abu
al-Khayr forwarded to Muhammad ibn Khayy al-Tinwaji al-Tinbukti and Muhammad
ibn Ibrahim ibn Abidin ibn al-Tahir al-Kunti. Abu al-Khayr wrote the manuscript in
1952 and Muhammad al-Tahir, called Sharaf Baba, copied it in a beautiful Sahrawi
script. In it Abu al-Khayr deals with an issue the practice of dropping the hands or
folding them during prayers that divided Muslims (and still does), splitting their
unity, leading at times to infighting and conflict. The author states that the folding of
hands is narrated in authentic prophetic traditions and is obligatory. He addressed this
question in order to convince those scholars who rejected the particular hadiths on the
practice of folding the hands saying:
When we saw the views of some of the learned people of our day and gauged from
their views the same objection to the authentic, straightforward, beautiful ahadith
going back in a continuous chain to the Prophet regarding the folding of the hands
in prayers and we being commanded to do so we, with certainty, saw it as our
obligation to defend the sunnah, ourselves, our dignity and our actions in prayers.
Abu al-Khayr demonstrated that the prophetic traditions on folding the hands during
prayers are authentic and sound, and mentioned in all the primary hadith compilations
such as al-Bukhari, Muslim, the Muwatta of Malik, Sahih of Ibn Khuzayma, al-Nasai,
al-Tabrani in his Kabir, Ibn Hiban in his Sahih, al-Tirmidhi in his Jami, Abu Dawud,
Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad, and others.34
Therefore, he claimed, most of the companions of the Prophet who resided in Medina,
as well as the sucessors,35 only reported the practice of the folding of hands. As for the
practice of the people of Medina 36 (which those who object to the folding of hands in
prayers cite as proof), it was not established as a normative practice and subsequent
source of legislation during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs,37 but came into
effect only after their death and after the end of the era of the companions.
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 257
His compilations
Shaykh Abu al-Khayr wrote on almost all subjects, from law (more than 30 works), juris-
prudence and history to literature. Although the shaykh was a great exegete and scholar of
hadith, we have not seen any work by him on Quranic exegesis nor have we come across
many authorisations granted by him to his students.38 Among his many written works are
Miftah al-falah fi adhkar al-masa wa l-sabah39 (The Key to Success in the Remembrance
of Morning and Night). He wrote the following poems: a eulogy,40 a praise of Yusuf41 and
a condemnation of the world.42 In one treatise he responds to a question about sleeping
in the mosque;43 in another he mentions some of the virtues of Abu l-Abbas Sidi
Ahmad ibn al-Salih al-Suqi.44 There are written authorisations (ijazat) that he gave to
Muhammad ibn al-Siddiq45 and Alfa Salim Baber al-Timbukti,46 and a single authori-
sation in hadith.47 There are numerous letters: a letter to the judge Muhammad al-Amin
ibn Ahmad Baba ibn Abi l-Abbas al-Hasani;48 a letter to the judge Ahmad Baba b. Abi
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l-Abbas b. Umar b. Zayan al-Hasani;49 a rebuttal of the view that regarded the wealth of
those Muslims who accepted and dealt with the colonialists as permissible;50 a letter on
agency;51 a letter to Muhammad Yahya ibn Muhammad Salim al-Wallati;52 a response
to doubt around the mandatory waiting period for women after divorce in the instance
of remarriage; a letter on the selling of meat in exchange for stitched skins (leather);53
questions; and a fatwa.54 Among the many fatwas there is one directed to Ahmad ibn Abi
Bakr ibn al-Sayyad;55 one on secret marriage;56 another on zakat (alms);57 and others on
hiba (gifts)58 and the issue of imama (delivering the sermon and leading of prayers) of
the two festivals (al-Idayn).59 Then there are fatwas on what transpired between the
desert dwellers with regard to their trading in sheep;60 on reconciliation;61 on bartering
and commercial trade;62 on inheritance;63 on delegation of power and authority;64 and
on agency.65 There is a fatwa that addresses the problem that transpired between the
children of Buhan and the children of Imran around the well called al-Hass al-Abyad.66
There is also a set of fatwas67 and responses,68 and the responses of Muhammad Yahya
ibn Salim to the questions of Abu al-Khayr.69 There is a commentary by Ibn Ashir on
the Ajrumiyya70 and a commentary of Maraqi al-suud71 which he did not complete. He
also gives information about munawala,72 and many other fatwas on incidents that
transpired.73
It is clear that Shaykh Abu al-Khayr was not only an active scholar, but also an
exemplary personality in the peaceful resolution of disputes. His death left a vacuum in
the region, specifically in Timbuktu and Arawan.
I am certain that he depends on Mahamane Mahamoudou (known as Hamou Muhammad Dedeou) the only possible
source, according to my knowledge, who possesses an almost complete biography of Shaykh Abu al-Khayr. Hamu says
in his manuscript entitled Nawazil al-Shaykh Abi al-Khayr ibn Abd-Allah al-Arawani (The Verdicts of al-Shaykh Abi al-
Khayr ibn Abd-Allah al-Arawani), He was born in the beginning of the 14th century hijri, without giving an exact date.
6 Al-Arawani, Muhammad Mahmud ibn al-Shaykh. Kitab al-tarjuman fi tarikh al-Sahra wa l Sudan wa balad Timbukt wa
Shinqit wa Arawan wa nabdh min tarikh al-zaman fi jami l-buldan (The Book on the Narrating of the History of the
Sahra and the Sudan, the Land of Timbuktu, Shinqit and Arawan and a Synopsis on the History of the Time of all
Countries), Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 762, page 25.
7 This is a book in prosody (al-arud), a science that studies the endings and rhymes of verses in Arabic poetry, by Abd
Allah ibn Uthman al-Khazraji.
8 He was Abd al-Rahim ibn al-Husayn b. Abd al-Rahman Abu l Fadl Zayn al-Din, known as al-Hafiz al-Iraqi (d.1404).
The poem is called alfiyya which literally means the thousand as it refers to a didactic poem with a thousand verses
or couplets. The Alfiyya in this case is a work on the science of the prophetic traditions in the form of a didactic poem.
9 Al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr. Maktub fi dhikr fadail al-Shaykh Abi l-Abbas Sidi Ahmad ibn al-Salih al-Suqi (A Treatise on
Enumerating the Virtues of Shaykh Abi l-Abbas Sidi Ahmad ibn al-Salih al-Suqi), Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript
number 1034.
10 He is the judge (was the Chief Justice), the erudite and intelligent scholar Sidi Ahmad ibn Bubakr ibn al-Sayd ibn al-
Faqih Sulayman ibn Taliban ibn al-Faqih Sulayman ibn Muhammad Aghan ibn al-Shaykh Sidi Ahmad ibn Add (d.1921).
He also composed impromptu poetry.
11 He is the author of the book al-Saada al-abadiyya fi tarif bi ulama Timbukt al-bahiyya (The Perpetual Bliss in
Introducing the Scholars of Glorious Timbuktu).
12 It is apt here to mention that Shaykh Mawlay al-Arabi is Hamus actual and direct teacher. However, his teacher taught
him that everyone who learned at the hands of Shaykh Abu al-Khayr would be blessed in his knowledge and therefore
Mawlay al-Arabi used to coerce Shaykh Abu al-Khayr to teach some works to his student Hamu.
13 Hamu is an able copyist and an illustrious scholar who read the Risala of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani and some of the
books of hadith at the hands of Shaykh Abu al-Khayr.
14 Abu l-Araf was accepted by the ulama of his day as the undisputed authority in Arabic grammar.
15 This exegetical work was compiled by the famous fifteenth-century scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Suyuti and his teacher
Jalal al-Mahalli.
16 A weak prophetic tradition recorded by al-Tirmidhi (1991: 301, hadith number 2611) and by Ibn Majah (1996: 205, hadith
number 4159). In full it reads the word of wisdom is the lost property (gem) of the believer, wherever he/she finds it he
most deserves to take it. Lost gem is a metaphor for knowledge that a Muslim must look for and, upon finding it,
take it. In this case, Shaykh Abu al-Khayrs knowledge was that gem.
17 Translators note: It is not clear whether it was only when the shaykh asked or when anyone else asked.
18 Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (1999: 168).
19 Translators note: This issue around confusion and ignorance reveals the important epistemological reality in which the
Muslim world finds itself at all times, specifically in the era of European colonialism and post-colonialism.
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 259
20 Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Salim, born in Walata and lived and died in Nama. Of his more than 70
compilations are al-Taysir fi ahkam al-tanzil (The Rulings of the Revelation [the Quran] Made Easy), in which he mentions
the rulings of the Quran; a beautiful synopsis of Sahih al-Bukhari; a synopsis of Maliks Muwatta and others. See the
biography of Muhammad Yahya by al-Takni (2000: 132141). Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 9207.
21 See Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 5828, titled Risala ila Muhammad Yahya b. Salim al-Wallati (Epistle to
Muhammad Yahya ibn Salim al-Wallati).
22 Takrur was originally a kingdom in Senegal that was a kind of successor empire to the great Ghana Empire after the
collapse of the latter. However, later it was used to designate the whole of black Africa, specifically sub-Saharan West
Africa, and thus came to be used interchangeably with Bilad al-Sudan (Sudanic Africa).
23 See Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 2752, titled al-Saada al-abadiyya fi l-tarif bi ulama Timbukt al-
bahiyya (The Perpetual Bliss in Introducing the Scholars of Glorious Timbuktu), pages 5859.
24 Mahamane Mahamoudou, al-Nawazil, page 4 (unpublished paper in authors personal collection).
25 Due to insufficient time I was unable to collect and collate all his poetry.
26 The Mukhtasar al-Khalil is a standard text in the Maliki legal school and one of its most referred to sources. It was written
by Ishaq ibn Khalil.
27 Ahmad ibn Ambarak b. Bark ibn Muhammad, called Abi l-Araf from the tribe of Takn, born and reared in Kalmim
(Morocco) from the district of Sus and Wadanun, settled in Timbuktu. He was born into a family of knowledge, judiciary
and commerce. He studied in his village then moved to the Shinqit then to Timbuktu, where he stayed most of his life.
He established a library that played a pioneering role in the preservation of manuscripts, whether through copying,
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purchasing or exchange. See Khazzanah Ahmad bib Abi l-Araf, an unpublished and uncatalogued manuscript in the
private collection of Mahamane Mahamoudou. See also al-Takni (2000: 68, 81).
28 Oral information passed on by Hamou, Abu al-Khayrs student, who heard it directly from a student of Shaykh al-Tijani
ibn Muhammad al-Amin.
29 Copied by Sidi Muhammad and Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Sultan, Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 621.
30 Al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr. See Mamma Haidara Library, manuscript number 2264.
31 The term al-Maghrib al-Islami refers geographically to that area which today stretches from Libya to Morocco, including
Mali and Mauritania. This is in contrast to the al-Mashriq al-Islami, which refers to the eastern Islamic and Arab lands
such as the Levant (Bilad al-Sham), the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, etc.
32 Al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr ibn Abd-Allah ibn Marzuq, in Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript number 419, and Mamma
Haidara Library, manuscript number 3247.
33 Al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr, in Ahmed Baba Institute, manuscript numbers 632 and 2812.
34 In these works are collected the traditions ascribed to the Prophet and at times to the companions. al-Bukhari, Sahih
Muslim, Jami al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan ibn Majah and Sunan al-Nasai are known as the six canonical
books of hadith compilations, although the others numbering at least 15 are regarded as reliable sources.
35 The second generation of Muslims that came after the generation of the companions; they saw, met and lived with those
who were companions of Prophet Muhammad.
36 In the Maliki school the living practice of the people of Medina was regarded as a source of law and part of the legal
epistemology of that school. The Malikis argue that since the Prophet and most of his companions lived in Medina,
it stands to reason that their practice would best reflect that of the Prophet.
37 The era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs refers to the first four caliphs after the demise of the Prophet from the eleventh
year of the Muslim calendar until the year forty (AD 632660), that is, roughly a period of 30 years.
38 Authorisation (ijaza) is the phenomenon where the expert teacher in Islamic scholarship specifically in the science of
prophetic traditions and other sciences, as well as in the recitation of the Quran gave students permission to teach
those sciences from his books and ideas.
39 Manuscript numbers 8368 and 9530, Ahmed Baba Institute.
40 Manuscript number 9533, Ahmed Baba Institute.
41 Copied by the author, al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr. See manuscript number 3085, Ahmed Baba Institute.
42 Copied by the author, al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr. See manuscript number 4730, Ahmed Baba Institute.
43 Copied by the author, al-Arawani, Abu al-Khayr. See manuscript number 1034, Ahmed Baba Institute.
44 Manuscript number 1033, Ahmed Baba Institute.
45 Manuscript number 3442, Ahmed Baba Institute.
46 Manuscript number 6355, Ahmed Baba Institute.
47 Manuscript number 3930, Ahmed Baba Institute.
REFERENCES
Hunwick JO & RS OFahey (Eds) (2003) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of western Sudanic Africa (Vol. 4). Leiden: Brill
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (1999) Ilam al-Muwaqiin (Vol. 4, second edition). Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah
Ibn Majah A (1996) Sunan ibn Majah (Vol. 12). Beirut: Dar al-Maarifah
al-Takni A (2000) Izala al-rayb wa l Shakk wa l-tafrit fi dhikr al-muallifin min ahl al-Takrur wa l-Sahra wa ahl l-Shinqit.
Edited by al-Hadi al-Mabruk al-Dali. Zawiya, Libya: al-Hadi al-Mabruk al-Dali
al-Tirmidhi M (1991) Jami al-Tirmidhi (Vol. 9). Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami
AL-SHAYKH ABU AL-KHAYR: ILLUSTRIOUS SCHOLAR AND PIOUS FRIEND OF GOD 261
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libraries
timbuktu
the
part iv
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264
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 17
This chapter explores the state of manuscripts in Mali, specifically in Timbuktu and the
adjacent region, and the history of the manuscripts from before their disappearance
(concealment) until their resurfacing. The chapter also discusses Savama-DCI (Sauve-
guarde et Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la Dfence de la Culture Islamique), a
consortium of private libraries established in 1996, which is committed to the preser-
vation of manuscripts in Timbuktu.
The city of Timbuktu is an authentic and original Islamic space that illuminated the
paths of knowledge2 and learning for students and researchers. It is rich in the art of
building, and boasts an abundant literary heritage and well-stocked manuscript
libraries. There are about 408 private manuscript collections in Timbuktu and the
surrounding areas (and there are other collections not included in this count).
These manuscripts reflect our civilisational legacy in general but, more specifically, our
recorded and written heritage. It is a legacy filled with tremendous gifts and abundant
benefits. The manuscripts carry the collective memory of our ancestors, proof of their
identity, their thoughts, and a summary of their experiences. They are rich in thought
and scientific content and highlight the constructive role played by our predecessors
and the undeniable contributions they made to the growth of Islamic civilisation.
The manuscripts deal with all kinds of knowledge and disciplines, including the Quran
and its sciences, Quranic exegesis, prophetic traditions, Islamic substantive law and
source methodology in jurisprudence, theology, Sufism (gnosticism), philosophy,
Opposite: Many of the
psychology, biology, geometry, logic, rhetoric, grammar (syntax), Arabic language,
manuscripts have been damaged
travel, geography, history, politics, arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, medicine, by insects, neglect, moisture
chemistry, physics, meteorology, botany, music, methods of teaching, biographies and and inappropriate storage.
There is no doubt that the manuscripts were concealed for a substantial period of time
a period that lasted a full century or more. The proof for this claim lies in the fact that
no reference was made to the existence of the manuscripts by researchers who visited
the region during the colonial era and thereafter. And so it was taught in schools and
universities that Africa had no recorded (written) history, but only an oral tradition.
However, the works of travellers who visited the area before the arrival of European
colonialism mention the presence of priceless manuscripts. Ibn Battuta the well-
known traveller who visited the region in the pre-colonial era and al-Hasan al-
Wazzan (better known as Leo Africanus) who visited the region in the seventeenth
century both spoke of the presence of manuscripts in the region of Timbuktu, and of
those who worked on the manuscripts.
There are many factors that led to the disappearance of the manuscripts and their
subsequent reappearance. Perhaps one of the greatest causes was the clashes and
disputes between African Islamic scholars and colonialists who, soon after their arrival,
began systematically plundering the manuscripts and moving them to European cities.
For example, all the manuscripts in the collection of the illustrious scholar Shaykh
Umar Tal (d.1865) were taken to France and are still kept there in the French National
Library in Paris. The manuscripts of other scholars were moved to different European
capitals and major cities. Because of these developments, African Islamic scholars
began to hide whatever manuscripts they had. Some placed the manuscripts in leather
bags and buried them in holes; others left them in abandoned caves in the desert; and
yet others sealed up the doors of their libraries with mud to conceal them.
With the end of colonialism, the people of the region turned their attention to the hidden
and buried manuscripts. In 1964 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation held an international conference in Timbuktu to discuss the issue of
African world heritage. They turned their attention to the African manuscripts and
agreed on the establishment of various centres: the Institut Fondamental de lAfrique
Noire (IFAN) Dakar; a centre for researching, collating and recording oral history
narratives in Niamey, the capital city of the Republic of Niger; and another centre for
the search and preservation of old manuscripts based in the Malian city of Timbuktu.
Many small private collections As a result of this, the Ahmed Baba Institute adopting the name of Ahmad Baba al-
of manuscripts are kept in Sudani al-Timbukti, one of Timbuktus greatest scholars during the sixteenth and
homes in and around Timbuktu.
seventeenth centuries was opened in Timbuktu in 1973 (see Chapter 20 for more on
Stored in trunks or cupboards,
these precious family treasures the Ahmed Baba Institute). The staff at the Institute conducted awareness campaigns
are very vulnerable to decay. and encouraged people to bring out the manuscripts they and their forebears had
concealed. They assured people that their reasons for collecting the manuscripts were
to protect and preserve them from theft and further plundering. They also assured the
owners that the manuscripts would remain under their control should they want to
benefit from them in reading or doing research. In this manner the collection of some
manuscripts was gradually undertaken and completed, thanks to the efforts of and
huge costs borne by the Ahmed Baba Institute and its staff.
In spite of these tremendous efforts, though, most of the manuscripts were collected
only after 1991. This coincided with the election of a new government that returned
to the citizens their democratic rights, among which was the right to establish founda-
tions, companies and private societies. Owners of manuscripts grabbed the opportunity
and established a society for the preservation and evaluation of these manuscripts.
Another awareness campaign was launched, explaining the scientific and civilisational
value of the manuscripts and urging people to hand them over to the public manuscript
library, the Ahmed Baba Institute.
The first private library to open its doors to the public was the Mamma Haidara Library,
which obtained funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation in New York. After this
many other private libraries opened their doors. Today Timbuktu has 21 private libraries
and many manuscripts are seeing the light after their concealment under the ground.
Savama-DCI has also signed an agreement with the Ford Foundation, which by the
time of writing had committed itself to donating more than half a million US dollars
for the period 200508. With this monetary assistance, three private libraries have been
established and/or renovated:
the Mamma Haidara Library (renovations);
the Imam al-Suyuti Library, situated next to the Jingere-Ber Mosque;
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All three libraries were inaugurated in April 2006. Savama-DCI has additionally
pledged to achieve the following by the end of 2007:
indexing (cataloguing) the information in 500 manuscripts from each of the 3 libraries;
conserving and preserving 500 manuscripts from each of the 3 libraries;
training youth in the art of indexing;
training about 50 women in the art of conserving manuscripts;
continuing the search for manuscripts in remaining private collections;
translating 10 manuscripts on topics such as dealing with wars, tolerance in Islam
and womens rights;
organising an international meeting in Timbuktu on the African manuscripts at the
end of 2008.
All of these activities have been made possible by virtue of funding from the Ford
Foundation.
NOTES
270
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 18
The creation of private libraries is a relatively new phenomenon in the cultural life of
Timbuktu. Libraries in the modern sense of the word are places where anyone can go
to consult books, in this case manuscripts, open to the general public. The Timbuktu
libraries are probably better referred to as private collections gathered by individuals or
families who use them for educational purposes or their own private reading.
Since 1996, however, 21 of Timbuktus private collections have been opened to the
public (listed in Table 1). This number does not include libraries outside the city limits
and there are many important ones, such as those in Arawan and Bujbeha in the Sahara
Desert, and those located along the river in Dir.
Within Timbuktu, the Sankore district has eight libraries (38%); Badjind has seven
(33%); Sareikeyna and Sareyk have four (19%) and Jingarey-Ber has two (9%). Thus,
of the seven administrative areas of the city, four contain private libraries and essen-
tially the libraries are concentrated in the old sections of the city.
No one has yet researched the emergence of private collections over time, but a study
of this kind would begin to explain their location in the older parts of Timbuktu as they
proliferated between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. As early as the second
half of the sixteenth century Ahmad Baba (and Moroccan and Spanish authors) began
to mention the existence of these private collections. The tarikhs of the seventeenth
century mention the purchase of manuscripts by different scholars, as well as copies of
manuscripts commissioned by the askiyas for scholars in Timbuktu. Many of those
opening their libraries today are descendants of these scholars.
The first private library was opened to the public in Timbuktu in the twentieth century
by a Moroccan bibliophile called Ahmad Boularaf. He was born in about 1864 in
Opposite: Ismal Diadi Haidara,
Morocco, and first lived in Shinqit in Mauritania. He opened his library in Timbuktu custodian of the Fondo Kati
in about 1907 and employed transcribers to copy the manuscripts that enriched his Library.
Of the 21 libraries listed in Table 1, only five are easily accessible to the public. These
five libraries collectively house just over 20 000 manuscripts (see Table 2) and they
generally experience similar problems around preservation.
Damage to manuscripts
Factors that result in damage to manuscripts include environmental factors, the com-
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With the electrification of Timbuktu, the population rapidly moved from using oil
lamps to gas lamps, and then to electric lamps. There has also been a shift from using
fibre bulbs to neon bulbs, which consume less electricity but which contribute more
actively to the discolouration of paper and ink.
Without an analysis of Timbuktus rainfall levels combined with its temperature gradients
it is impossible to accurately determine the effects of the climate on manuscripts.
However, on average, during winter, the temperature oscillates between 5 and 12C,
and in summer it is between 45 and 52C. The average difference in temperature
between seasons is thus about 40 degrees, which obviously impacts on the manuscripts.
Hot, dry air makes the manuscripts brittle, causing them to disintegrate, and the short
rainy season causes humidity, which promotes moulds and bacteria. Other environ-
mental factors that damage the manuscripts include pollution, floods, fires, earthquakes
and the collapse of houses.
The materials from which the manuscripts are made are another source of deterioration
and make their preservation problematic. In the private libraries of Timbuktu,
The ink used, mainly from the sixteenth century, was often metal based. Moisture has
increased the inks acidity levels and caused the ferrous content to damage the paper.
In some cases, ink has eaten deep into the paper, the text has become illegible and the
fragile paper has disintegrated.
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Elements to be taken into consideration when examining the human factors respon-
sible for the deterioration of the collections of manuscripts, and the manuscripts
themselves, include:
the closure of many libraries due to political reasons;
dispersion of manuscripts/libraries contents through inheritance;
mishandling of manuscripts;
unsuitable storage methods, for example when manuscripts are piled up in chests;
theft of manuscripts for resale on the black market;
breaking up manuscripts into separate sections;
owners throwing away or destroying damaged manuscripts.
The factors discussed above have been largely responsible for the destruction of
manuscripts in private collections in Timbuktu. If these manuscripts are to be
preserved, the following conditions will have to be met: suitable buildings need to be
constructed to house the manuscripts and equipped with restoration, digitisation and
storage facilities; the manuscripts must be restored and digitised; and catalogues of each
librarys manuscripts must be compiled and published.
What is today the Fondo Kati Library was begun when the Islamicised Visigoth Ali b.
Zyad al-Kunti left Toledo in Spain in 1469. He went into exile with a sizeable
collection of manuscripts, and ended up in Goumbou, in the Sonink region of present-
day Mali. The collection was enriched in Goumbou with the manuscripts of Askiya
Muhammad and Alfa Kati Mahmud b. Ali b. Zyad (d.1593). Ismael b. Alfa Kati then
took charge of the collection in Tindirma, until 1612. The manuscripts were then
moved to Bina, under the guardianship of Mahmud Kati II (d.1648), and after that the
There are 7 028 manuscripts in this collection which represents the whole compendium
of medieval Islamic knowledge: Quran and Quranic traditions; law and the founda-
tions of the law; theology and mysticism; history and genealogy; philology and
grammar; logic and philosophy; poetry and metre; astronomy and astrology; medicine
and pharmacopoeia; and mathematics and physics. Some of the manuscripts are
juridical consultations or juridical Acts dealing with a variety of subjects such as: the
life of the Jews and Christian renegades in Timbuktu; the sale and freeing of slaves;
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marriage and divorce; coinage and its uses; the commerce of books, salt, gold, fabrics,
cereals, spices and cola nuts. Others are letters from rulers or merchants from both sides
of the Sahara.
Many of the foundational works are annotated by the learned men of Cordova and
Granada, Fez and Marrakesh, Qayrawan and Tripoli, Cairo and Baghdad. Others are
put into verse and annotated by the learned men of Timbuktu, Jenne, Shinqit, Wadan
and Walata. Many of the manuscripts are signed or annotated by Mahmud Kati or his
descendants.
Many of the manuscripts contain watermarks which identify the origin of the paper.
Calligraphic styles range from Andalusi, Maghribi, Saharaoui, Suki, Sudani and Sharqui
scripts. Their formats vary from 6 to 7 centimetres or 22 to 29 centimetres and many
are covered in tooled leather. They date from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.
Today the manuscripts are generally in quite bad condition due to the multiple factors
discussed earlier. The conservation of the manuscripts is imperative and will hopefully
be achieved soon through restoration and digitisation. There are also plans for the
publication of the librarys catalogue.
NOTE
1 Translated from French by Davina Eisenberg.
276
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 19
The city of Timbuktu was built in the latter part of the fifth century hijri (AD 1100) by
the Tuareg of Maghsharan. They first used it as a station to move their livestock to
during the winter season when they came from Arawan, a city of knowledge, pious
people, saints and judges. They also stored grain and other goods there, and dug a
number of wells. Timbuktus unique location in the region attracted merchants who
met and sometimes rested there. In time the city transformed into a market for Saharan
traders and caravans (from Egypt and the oases of Aujalah, Ghadamas, Fazan, Tuwat,
Tiflalit, Fez, Sus and Dara) en route to the market in Walata.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, Timbuktu replaced Walata as the destination
of the trade routes. Timbuktu became an important centre for meeting and trading in
West Africa. Trade in salt, wheat, slaughtered camels and gold nuggets occurred
between the cities of the Bilad al-Sudan and the cities of the northern Sahara. In this
way Timbuktu became a dominant centre for traders passing between Jenne and
Walata. The city also became famous for its river fishing and port facilities. The import-
ance of the Niger River for Timbuktu is illustrated in the fact that the city is located
near to the river, which dominates a large part of West Africa. This gave Timbuktu, the
Opposite: Inside the al-Wangari
largest commercial centre, a huge advantage over the neighbouring markets the river library in Timbuktus Bajinde
was an indispensable medium for transporting merchandise and people to places such district, South Africas deputy
as Gao and Mopti. Trade in these neighbouring markets started to decline around the minister of arts and culture
is shown the collection of
end of the fourteenth century, in part due to Timbuktus suitable geographical location,
manuscripts on display, and
but also because the town became the centre of learning and so attracted numerous meets several of the imams
scholars, many of whom came from patrician families. and scholars of the city.
Thus did they choose the location of this virtuous, pure, undefiled and proud city, blessed
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with divine favour, a healthy climate, and [commercial] activity which is my birth
place and my hearts desire. It is a city unsullied by the worship of idols, where none
has prostrated save to God the Compassionate. A refuge of scholarly and righteous
folk, a haunt of saints and ascetics, and a meeting place of caravans and boats.3
Historians further extol the status of the city when they describe its inhabitants as
people who revered knowledge and who invited scholars and the most famous jurists
from as far afield as Egypt, Morocco, Iraq and Spain to teach at Timbuktus Sankore
University.4 Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, better known as Leo Africanus, described Timbuktu
as a city swarming with numerous judges, men of letters and propagators. They were
spread all over the city with their manuscript libraries as a result of the flourishing of
the sciences (knowledge) that were taught at the Sankore University and the numerous
other circles of knowledge.5 Trade in books, more than in any other commercial goods,
became the most lucrative source for profits. The public libraries that were owned by
the scholars were open to all who wanted to borrow or read books.
Education in Timbuktu
The curricula in Timbuktus centres of learning, specifically at Sankore, included all the
Islamic disciplines known and taught in the other universities in the Islamic world at
that time, such as al-Azhar University in Cairo, al-Qarawiyyin in Fez and al-Qayrawan
in Tunis. These disciplines included theology, Quranic exegesis, prophetic traditions,
substantive law and the rational sciences such as syntax, morphology, rhetoric, logic,
history, geography and other sciences which at that time constituted the fundamental
pillars of the Islamic sciences.
The Sankore Mosque was also famous for the teaching of the Maliki legal school of
thought, taught by scholars thoroughly proficient in their subject, whether they were
natives of Timbuktu or from other places. This was indicative of the cultural and educa-
tional links between Timbuktu and the most famous Islamic centres of knowledge on
the African continent: the cities of Qistat and Qayrawan in Tunisia and Fez in Morocco.
I was the contemporary of righteous folk of Sankore, who were equaled in their
righteousness only by the Companions of the Messenger of God may God bless
him and grant him peace and be pleased with all of them.6
Among them were the jurist al-Hajj, grandfather of Qadi Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakr b.
al-Hajj; the jurist Abu Abd Allah Anda Ag-Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Uthman b.
Muhammad b. Nuh al-Sanhaji; the jurist al-Mukhtar b. Muhammad b. al-Faqih (meaning
the jurist) al-Mukhtar al-Nahwi; Abu Muhammad Abd Allah b. al-Faqih Ahmad Buryu;
the three grandsons of Anda Ag-Muhammad in the female line: the jurist Abd Allah, the
jurist al-Hajj Ahmad, and the jurist Mahmud; sons of the jurist Umar b. Muhammad
Aqit; al-Sharif Sidi Yahya; Qadi Umar b. al-Faqih Mahmud; Abu l-Abbas Ahmad b.
al-Faqih Muhammad b. Said; Abu Bakr b. Ahmad Ber; the jurist Muhammad Baghayogho
al-Wangari and his brother the jurist Ahmad Baghayogho and many others.7
Ahmad Baba al-Sudani (d.1627) said: One day I came to him asking for books on
grammar, and he hunted through his library bringing me everything he could find on
the subject.9 This anecdote sheds light on Baghayogho al-Wangaris library in
Timbuktu and the distribution of his manuscripts across the city. Ahmad Baba himself
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had a library whose books were confiscated by the Moroccan army after their
occupation of Timbuktu in 1591: I had the smallest library of any of my kin, and they
[the soldiers of the invading Moroccon army] seized 1 600 volumes.10 Ahmad Baba
further says about his shaykh, Muhammad Baghayogho al-Wangari:
He had enormous patience in teaching throughout the entire day, and was able to
get his matter across to even the dull-witted, never feeling bored or tired until those
attending his class would grow fed up without it bothering him. I once heard one of
our colleagues say: I think this jurist drank Zamzam water [water from the Zamzam
well in Mecca] so that he would not get fed up during teaching.11
Ahmad Baba also remarked on the shaykhs perseverance and adherence to worship, his
good intentions and aversion to bad characteristics, and his positive approach to all
people, even oppressors. He was chaste and humble and carried the flag of righteousness
with tranquillity, respect and good character. Everyone loved and praised him and it
was agreed that he guided peoples tongues. He was very spirited in his teaching and was
never harsh to beginners or to slow learners.
He devoted his entire life to teaching, even while faithfully attending to the needs of
the general public and to judicial matters. Once the sultan invited him to accept
appointment as qadi of Gao, the seat of the Songhay Empire, but the shaykh refused the
offer, holding himself aloof from it. He devoted himself to teaching, particularly after
the death of Qadi Sidi Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Said (there is no apparent reason for
this). Ahmad Baba al-Sudani says:
When I first met him he was teaching various classes at the beginning of his day from
the hour of the early morning worship until mid-morning. Then he would return to
his house and perform the mid-morning prayer (salah al-duha), remaining a while
and after that sometimes going to the qadi (the judge), to plead for people or to effect
a reconciliation. During the noon hour, he would teach in his house and lead the
other scholars.13
On their return from the pilgrimage and on the death of their maternal uncle, they
settled in Timbuktu and, under Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Said, studied jurisprudence
and hadith. With him they also read the Muwatta, the Mudawwana,14 the Mukhtasar and
other works, following his teaching devotedly. Under Ahmad Baba al-Sudanis father Al-Imam Baba Mahmud, a
they studied source methodology in jurisprudence, rhetoric and logic, and read with descendant of Muhammad
Baghayogho al-Wangari and
him the Usul, that is, the jurisprudential work of the Egyptian scholar al-Subki, and the
present imam of the Sidi Yahya
Talkhis al-miftah. They also attended the spiritual retreat of Shaykh al-Khunaji whilst mosque in Timbuktu.
remaining committed to their reading, thereby gaining abundant knowledge until
Muhammad Baghayogho became the unparalleled shaykh of his age in the various
branches of learning.15 Ahmad Baba al-Sudani says:
I remained with him [Baghayogho al-Wangari] for ten years, and completed with
him the Mukhtasar of Khalil in my own reading and that of 46 others some eight
times. I completed with him the Muwatta, reading it for comprehension, as well as
the Tashil of ibn Malik, spending three years on it, in an exhaustive analytical study.
I also studied the Usul of al-Subki with al-Mahallis commentary exhaustively three
times, the Alfiya of al-Iraqi with the authors commentary, the Talkhis al-miftah with
the abridged [commentary] of al-Sad, which I read twice or more, the Sughra of al-
Sanusi and the latters commentary on the Jazairiyya, and the Hikam of ibn Ata
Allah with the commentary of Zarruq; the poem of Abu Muqri, and the Hashimiyya
on astronomy together with its commentary, and the Muqaddima of al-Tajuri on the
same subject, the Rajaz of al-Maghili on logic, the Khazrajiyya on prosody with the
commentary of al-Sharif al-Sabti, much of the Tuhfat al-hukkam of ibn Asim and the
commentary on it by his son; all the above were in my own reading. I read exhaus-
tively with him the entire Fari of Ibn al-Hajib, and attended his classes similarly on
the Tawdih missing only from [the section on] deposited goods to [the section on]
judgments; also much of the Muntaqa of al-Baji, the Mudawwana with the
indeed he wrote down portions of my scholarly research, and I heard him quoting
some of it in his classes, for he was fair-minded and humble, and ready to accept
truth from wherever it came. He was with us [his students, fellow scholars and
friends] on the day of the tribulation [Moroccan conquest of Timbuktu in 1591], and
that was the last time I saw him. I heard later that he had died on Friday 19 Shawal
1002 (8 July 1594). He wrote some comments and glosses in which he pointed out
the errors made by commentators on [the Mukhtasar of] Khalil and others, and he
went through the large commentary of al-Tatai [on the Mukhtasar], pointing out
most valuably the errors of that author, as well as those al-Tatai transmitted from
others. I [Ahmad Baba] gathered these together in a small [independent] work May
God shower him with mercy.16
One of the great-grandchildren of the founder of the library, namely al-Imam Mahmud
al-Wangari (Hasi), deserves all praise for collating and preserving the manuscripts after
the library was dissolved and its manuscripts scattered in various places amongst family
members in Jenne, Gundam and Timbuktu. He collected whatever manuscripts he could
get from family members and kept them in one place. However, despite these efforts of
al-Imam Mahmud al-Wangari, many of the manuscripts remained scattered all over
until al-Sayyid Sidi Mukhtar Katani b. Sidi Yahya al-Wangari17 started an earnest
search for all the contents of the library of Shaykh Muhammad Baghayogho.
Al-Imam Baba Mahmud, the imam of the Sidi Yahya Mosque, who is
responsible for family heritage and customs, instructed me to put all
our manuscripts in one of our homes. I then organised the library,
naming it the Wangari Manuscript Library. It is a private library
and its doors are open to all who desire to do research and seek
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We received a firm commitment from all those members of the family who possessed The entrance to the Wangari
manuscripts to hand them over until we had collected a large number of the scattered Manuscript Library in Timbuktu.
manuscripts, especially the ones in Timbuktu and Gundam. Over 1 500 manuscripts were
collected at the time, although it is possible that we have more than that number. We
are therefore revising the count as well as continuing the search for other manuscripts.
All the manuscripts that we have thus far collected make up the contents of the Wangari
Library. The library contains many works written by Moroccan and Sudanese scholars.19
The oldest manuscript in the library, comprising parts of the Quran in the riqqa20 script
that belonged to Muhammad Baghayogho al-Wangari, was copied in 1107 hijri. The
library also contains some important historical documents.
The current condition of the manuscripts is not good given the difficult conditions and
meagre resources of this town. The manuscripts are in dire need of restoration and binding.
Also, the special room in which they are stored is small and unsuitable. We therefore
hope for extended assistance in order to put in place the best conditions for the preser-
vation of the manuscripts. We have suggested to potential donors and officials that the
house of Shaykh Muhammad Baghayogho al-Wangari be repaired and renovated and
that it be registered on the list of national and international heritage sites, as the
manuscript heritage played an important role in the dissemination of the Arabic
language and Islamic culture throughout all the regions of the western Bilad al-Sudan.
The most important manuscript libraries with all of which the Wangari Library has
excellent relationships in Timbuktu and surrounding areas are: the Ahmed Baba
Institute, the Mamma Haidara Library, the Nadi Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti
Library, the Fondo Kati Library, the Arawan Library, the Boudjbeha Library, the al-
Shaykh al-Tijan Library, the al-Shaykh Sidi Alin Library, the Muhammad Mahmud b.
Throughout the past 14 centuries, Arabs and Muslims have made a huge contribution
to the development of the sciences, culture and knowledge, resulting in the modern
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civilisation that the world is benefiting from today. They were able to spread their
culture to many nations greater than them in number and stronger in resources. They
manufactured the best paper, the best quality ink, and the choicest leather for
manuscripts. Their books were widely available at a time when the use of paper was still
underdeveloped in Europe.
Comparatively few Arabic manuscripts remain, as many were burned in the courtyards
of Cordova during the time of the tragedy of Spain, or destroyed in the Tigris River
during the Mongolian wars,21 or buried in graves and walls during communist rule in
central Asian Muslim countries during the twentieth century. Whatever manuscripts
remain fall into one of two categories: those that found their way to Europe; and those
that are still in Arab countries, many of the latter having been lost or damaged. The
time has come for us to salvage what can be salvaged. We should train a capable group
of people to protect and safeguard these ArabicIslamic manuscripts, thereby assuring
their preservation and creating the opportunity for researchers to benefit from them.
After conducting a study in conjunction with the Ahmed Baba Institute in 1967, the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation indicated that there
are over one million manuscripts in Mali. Our view as curators of the private libraries
is that between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries there were more than a million
manuscripts scattered between the old Sankore Mosque, other mosques, private Islamic
schools and family homes. We believe that many manuscripts were taken to Morocco
following the Moroccan invasion and occupation of Timbuktu in 1591.
The authors and copiers of the manuscripts some of whom were women were Arabs
from Morocco, the East, Spain and western Arawan. Many were Africans, specifically
from Timbuktu, Walata and Jenne. Some of these authors wrote in African languages
like Tamasheq, Hausa, Songhay, Wolof, Fulfulde and Bambara, but all were in Arabic
script. There are entries in the margins of some of the manuscripts to indicate who the
The manuscripts deal with the sciences of the Quran; Quranic exegesis; hadith, including
its sciences; Islamic law; jurisprudence; sira; tawhid; morphology, linguistics, grammar,
prosody, rhetoric, logic and expression; philosophy; travel; medicine and physiology;
chemistry; engineering; astrology; design; inheritance; herbology; Arabic poems, docu-
ments and correspondence; slave trading; occult sciences; fatwas; and the discussions of
the scholars. These scholars from Timbuktu and other areas exchanged knowledge and
Islamic research. There were great intellectual riches in this exchange of opinions and
ideas, which echoed through to the regions of the Niger River and the shores of the Arabs.
NOTES
2 The author used a manuscript copy of the Tarikh al-Sudan as his reference but since the translators have used John
Hunwicks translation of the work, from here on we will cite the translation as reference. See Hunwick (1999: lix).
3 Hunwick (1999: 29).
4 Translators note: Hunwick cautions against applying the term university to Sankore or Timbuktu as it amounts to facile
comparisons. He says: What was taking place in Timbuktu should be viewed within the cultural context of Islamic
civilization, rather than being associated conceptually with a European institution (1999: lviii).
5 Translators note: In addition to the Sankore Mosque there were other, albeit smaller, centres of learning.
6 Tarikh al-Sudan, manuscript copy.
7 Hunwick (1999: 3849).
8 Hunwick (1999: 6263).
9 Hunwick (1999: 63).
10 Hunwick (1999: 315).
11 Hunwick (1999: 63).
12 Hunwick (1999: 64).
13 Hunwick (1999: 65).
14 Translators note: these two works are the earliest works of Maliki jurisprudence.
15 Hunwick (1999: 65).
16 Hunwick (1999: 6568).
17 The author of this chapter, henceforth referred to in the first person singular (I).
18 Under the licence number 12/CUT/2003, dated 26 September 2003.
19 Translators note: not Sudan the country, but Sudan in Arabic meaning black Africa.
20 Translators note: this is one of the many calligraphic fonts or scripts in which Arabic, specifically the Quran, was written.
21 Translators note: the first incident refers to just after 1492 when Christians in Spain regained control over the
whole of the Iberian Peninsula and began the Inquisition against Muslims and Jews. Thus there was a campaign to
destroy all traces of Islam through conversion to Christianity, executions or removal of people from the Peninsula,
destruction of books and manuscripts, taking over of Islamic architecture such as mosques and turning them into
churches, etc. The second incident refers to around 1250 when the Mongol forces swept across the world, sacking and
destroying Baghdad in 1258. It is reported that their pillage lasted for around 40 days, during which time close to a
million people were killed and many books were dumped in the Tigris River.
REFERENCE
Hunwick J (1999) Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: al-Sadis Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary
documents. Leiden: Brill
286
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 20
The Republic of Mali is a vast country extending over 1 204 000 square kilometres. It
is one of the largest countries in West Africa and one of the most widely open to the
Arab world, bordering as it does on Algeria and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. It
has close ties with the Arab world, namely, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and Sudan, as evidenced in manuscripts at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher
Islamic Studies and Research (formerly the Ahmed Baba Centre or Cedrab [Centre de
Documentation et de Recherches Ahmed Baba]).
Founded by the Imagharen Tuareg at the beginning of the twelfth century, Timbuktu
was, at the outset, a mere watering place where, according to local legend, a woman
named Bouctou had settled. These same Tuareg entrusted their heavy baggage to her
when they had to travel. Tombouctou, or Timbuktu, means property of bouctou in Kel
Tamasheq.
Timbuktu made its debut in history with what would thereafter be its essential charac-
teristics: a multiracial and multi-ethnic society where observance of the same religious
faith (Islam), as well as a pronounced liking for business on the part of the inhabitants,
were to be the principal factors in development and intermingling. A trading point for
goods coming from the Maghrib and the Mashreq via Teghaza, Arawan, Biru (Walata) or
Al Suq and from the south via Jenne, Timbuktu soon became the rallying point for people Opposite: Architects model
of diverse races, ethnic groups and cultures. Its commercial calling resulted from a series showing plans for the
of factors which harmoniously took over from one another in space and time: the construction of the Ahmed
Baba Institute building in
complementarity between the Maghrib and the Bilad al-Sudan, the switch of Saharan
Timbuktu. Construction is
trade routes from west to east following the destruction of Ghana by the Almoravids, expected to be completed
the Islamisation of the population and, lastly, Timbuktus situation on the Niger River. in 2008.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 287
As to its Islamic calling, this dated back to the time of its foundation. It did not have
to overturn its gods in order to embrace another faith. Did not al-Sadi write: It is a city
unsullied by the worship of idols, where none has prostrated save to God the
Compassionate?2
An ideal trading place between the Maghrib and the Bilad al-Sudan, Timbuktu soon
became a coveted city. Thus it passed successively under the domination of the
Mandingo Empire (after 1325), the Songhay Empire (after 1468), the king of Morocco
(from 1591), the Peul Kingdom (182662), the Toucouleur Kingdom (186263), the
Kunta (186365) and, finally, French colonial rule (18931960).
In the minds of its promoters, this centre would cover the basin of the Niger in the
general sense of the word, that is, the SudanoSahelian zone stretching from
Mauritania to the edges of Lake Chad, including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso as well
as the Saharan regions of North Africa.
In line with these suggestions, on 23 January 1970 the Mali government passed a
decree4 providing for the creation of the Ahmed Baba Resource and Research Centre
(Cedrab). It was opened on 8 November 1973. The aims of Cedrab were to:
organise the search for and collection of documents written in Arabic and African
languages about the history of Africa;
classify, microfilm and catalogue the documents;
ensure the preservation of the manuscripts using modern, scientific methods;
try to publish some of the catalogues and manuscripts in books and journals;
diffuse African culture in the Arabic language, using historical manuscripts;
strive for the development of ArabicIslamic culture, of which Timbuktu represents
one of the largest centres;
become a central point for the exchange of information, a reception centre for
researchers, a point of union for cultural relationships between Mali and the Arab
world and all other countries interested in African civilisations and cultures.
Following Act 00029, Cedrab became the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic
Studies and Research (IHERI-AB) on 5 July 2000. Since then it has been a financially
independent, national establishment of a scientific, technological and cultural nature.
It must, however, be emphasised that the Institute is not yet fully functional. A number
of departments have experienced difficulties getting started, one problem being that of
human resources. In fact, it is practically impossible to find the specialised professors
needed by the Institute in order for it to function, and the only solution is to request
technical assistance from other Islamic countries and organisations whilst waiting for
nationals to be trained to fill the posts. For example, the Institute proposes technical
assistance in the form of tripartite co-operation between Mali, which will be responsible
for the visiting professors accommodation costs; institutions such as the Islamic
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Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the Islamic Development Bank;
countries such as Libya, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which will pay the
professors salaries; and countries such as Mauritania, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan, which
have sufficient human resources to supply professors and take charge of their transport.
Other problems include the facilities, notably the lack of classrooms and equipment,
especially in the publishing domain. The manuscript room does not meet the scientific
norms for preservation and the current library will have to be enlarged. We hope that
with the co-operation of the Republic of South Africa, these problems will be solved.
It is estimated that the Institute has a manuscript collection of more than 20 000
documents, thanks to support from the national budget and the subsidies granted by the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This figure, which makes the Ahmed Baba Institute the
largest Arabic manuscript documentation centre in black Africa, represents only a
fraction of the manuscript resources available in Timbuktu and its region. However, it
must be noted that, despite our selective treatment of manuscripts in private libraries,
the manuscripts remain exposed to damage and destruction by water, insects, fire and
other factors.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 289
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Left: Sign above the entrance Luxembourg which is intervening via Unesco to take responsibility for training
to the existing Ahmed Baba personnel, educating those persons in possession of manuscripts, digitising
Institute.
manuscripts, etc.
Right: Director of the Ahmed All these projects reinforce the activities connected with electronic filing, preser-
Baba Institute, Dr Mohammed
Gallah Dicko. vation, research and training, originally undertaken with the Arelmat project
(Electronic Filing of the Manuscripts of Timbuktu), financed by the Ford Foundation
for one year in 2000.
The Institute inherited from the Ahmed Baba Centre a scientific journal named
Sankor which has experienced publication problems, but at the time of writing its fifth
issue was in the process of being published. Thanks to the funds at its disposal for
research, the Institute can undertake two study projects every year from now on. For
example, in 2004 it launched the study project on traditional education in Timbuktu
and another on the 333 saints of Timbuktu.
The education and research department is responsible for undergraduate and post-
graduate education and research. It has five sections dealing with Islam; history; social
anthropology; ArabicAfrican linguistics and literature; and ArabAfrican medicine and
pharmacopoeia. The information department is responsible for finding, collecting and
digitising manuscripts written in Arabic and other languages; classifying and cataloguing
the collection and ensuring its preservation; and promoting information about African
culture and the use of Arabic through the manuscripts. The publishing department is
responsible for publishing and distributing the products of the Institutes research.
The results expected include digitising the private libraries (and so enriching the
Institutes databank) and making the manuscripts contents available to researchers.
However, the transport available to the Institute is inadequate, so hindering its ability
to successfully carry out its mission to collect, inventory and classify ancient
manuscripts from all of the eight regions of Mali, covering a surface area of over one
million square kilometres. At present personnel travel to the depots that they are able
to reach with the means at their disposal. Nevertheless, the most remote places that
cannot be reached are those most rich in manuscripts. The Institute is planning a large
public awareness campaign in these zones. Clearly, this will be impossible without
suitable transport. (In 2007, new vehicles were donated to the Institute.)
In close collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, such a programme would consist
of exhibiting manuscripts at the Institute. The programme could also be widened to
include the exhibition of private collections and other museum structures containing
manuscripts in Mali. Note, however, that for maximum profitability, all facets of the
tourism industry would need to be embraced, including accommodation, catering and
transport. Tourism would not prove viable if it were limited to revenue collected from
guided tours only.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 291
South African archivist, Mary
Minicka, studying watermarks
on a manuscript at the Ahmed
Baba Institute.
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As has been noted, the presence of manuscripts in Mali is linked to the Islamisation of
the country. The use of Arabic in diplomatic relations with the contemporary Arab
Islamic empires, Almoravids, Merinides and so on contributed to the development of
this language. The pilgrimages of Emperor Mansa Musa in the fourteenth century and
Emperor Askiya Muhammad in the fifteenth century were just as instrumental in
bringing this part of Africa into contact with the ArabMuslim world of the Maghrib
and the Middle East. Between the first half of the eighteenth century and the first half
of the nineteenth century a plethora of erudite persons from the north of Timbuktu rose
to prominence, amongst which were the Kunta, Ansar, Suqi and Arawani peoples.
The Peul and Toucouleur Islamic revolutions also fuelled a wealth of literature in
Arabic and Fulani.
Colonisation dealt a hard blow to the legacy left by these people. Many collections were
burned, looted or taken away. As a result of the droughts in the early twentieth century,
many who possessed manuscripts got rid of their patrimony by burying it in the sand or
entrusting it to neighbours before emigrating in large numbers to other countries.
Despite these vicissitudes, West Africa and Mali in particular still harbours many
unlisted, unidentified manuscripts and, even today, many families still jealously hide
their collections. Those who are searching for manuscripts are denied access to them,
as there is fear of a repetition of the requisitioning and pillaging which occurred during
the colonial era. The Ahmed Baba Institute has embarked on search missions in the
regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Mopti. The objectives of these missions are to educate
occupy a special place in our culture, otherwise considered to be for the most part oral.
longer in a position to preserve their
They have in fact contributed to the cultural development of our country across time
collections due to a lack of means
and space, and are preserved in family collections throughout the country.
and expertise.
Apart from those belonging to the Institute, the manuscripts generally enjoy private
legal status, for they are bequeathed to their owners, from father to son, down through
the generations, sometimes for several centuries. Despite their legal status as private
property, the manuscripts form part of the national written heritage, which is why the
Institute is seeing to their proper preservation, giving assistance to educate and inform
their owners and sometimes intervening in the treatment of the manuscripts. The
importance of the manuscripts lies in their quantity, the quality of their contents and
the owners attachment to them. The manuscripts represent a patrimony bequeathed
by forebears and are therefore of great spiritual and moral value to the owners. For them
the manuscripts are a sacred legacy, and it is as difficult to sell them as it would be to
exchange their fathers cap for money. Family pride is largely the reason. Unfortunately,
most of those who possess manuscripts are no longer in a position to preserve their
collections due to a lack of means and expertise.
Furthermore, there is the problem connected with the contents of the manuscripts
themselves. The manuscripts deal with all manner of topics and recount facts relating
to all aspects of life: historical, political, social and private events. The nature of some
of these events, which happened a very long time ago, may have serious repercussions
on current social life. For example, among the manuscripts there are commercial deeds
and legal transactions which may compromise families who are well placed in the social
hierarchy by recounting all sorts of unfortunate events or despicable acts involving
their ancestors. There are some which mention a familys debt with regard to another
family or unjustly acquired wealth (land, house) by a certain family.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 293
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political figures whose writings give us detailed information about the period in
question. They also cover all domains, namely history, literature, Islamic sciences,
commercial deeds, law, stories about travel, trans-Saharan commerce in particular, fatawa,
panegyrics, scientific treatises, pharmacopoeia, correspondence and so on. A distinction
should be made here between these manuscripts and those imported from the Maghrib
and the Middle East which, for the most part, are fundamental works on the fiqh, apart
from a few scientific treatises.
The topics dealt with in the manuscripts at the Institute can be categorised as follows:
Fiqh, including fatawa (28%); correspondence (24%); history (20%); panegyrics (10%);
grammar (10%); Quran and exegesis on the Quran (4%) and science (2%). Approx-
imately 2 per cent of the manuscripts are ajami and have not yet been sorted according Different calligraphic styles found
to these categories. in manuscripts in Timbuktu.
From left to right, these are
The manuscripts constitute for Timbuktu and Mali a source of justifiable pride, a examples of Suqi, Sudani,
jealously guarded treasure. Among our populations, anything written in Arabic script Sahrawi and Maghribi script.
assumes a sacred character because this script is also that of the Holy Quran.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 295
The principal forms of calligraphy used in the manuscripts at the Institute are:
the eastern form, which is characterised by the simplicity of the letters and the
absence of embellishment;
the African form, used by the Peuls, Toucouleurs, Soninks, Hausa and Wolofs. The
letters are thick and solid, particularly those used by the Hausa. This form is thought
to originate from the Maghribin writing;
the Sanhajan form, prevalent among the Berber tribes, thought to be a local creation
and related to Tafinagh, like the Suqi form.
After independence, the eastern calligraphic forms imposed themselves with the arrival
of academics from countries like Egypt and Arabia, giving the local forms of calligraphy
an archaic connotation. The Institute is currently trying to revive these forms of
writing by revitalising the copyist profession.5
The writing tool used in West African manuscripts in general, including those at the
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Institute, was the calamous, varying in length from 12 to 16 centimetres and made from
the branch of a local shrub or a bird quill. The ink container, shaped like a small bottle,
was made locally from leather or wood from the calabash tree.
The most common colours of ink used were black and then red. Other colours used
were brown, yellow and blue. Inks were made from charcoal and gum arabic, but
sometimes other products were added to make them brighter (gelatine) or indelible
(iron rust). These products are very acidic and, with time, rot and perforate the paper.
Preservation involves the set of techniques and processes intended to halt or retard the
progressive deterioration of the organic, material components of the manuscripts.
These components (parchment, paper, ink, etc.) are subject to ageing.
It is an undeniable reality that the manuscripts are in a state of deterioration. Nature has
endowed us with a warm, dry climate suitable for the preservation of paper, but that does
not mean that our manuscripts are secure from all danger. There are many other harmful
factors, such as biological (insects), chemical (acidity, humidity), natural (fire, water, wind,
dust) and human (careless handling, theft, fraudulent sales, etc.). To guard against this
threat, the Institute clears the depots of dust and regularly fumigates the manuscripts.
In spite of this, most of our manuscripts are in a serious state of deterioration and show
signs of irreversible damage caused by water, insects and the incorrect preservation
methods to which they were subjected before reaching us. They are faded and
discoloured, which often renders the texts illegible.
The room in which the manuscripts are stored at the Institute is also inadequate. It is
cramped and poorly equipped, with a shortage of glass cabinets currently the preferred
storage space. The increasing number of manuscripts 20 000 in a room designed for
With the aid of partners, the Institute today possesses the equipment necessary to cope
with the problem of preservation and restoration, as well as a large amount of computer
hardware and consumables for both preservation and digitisation. In the workshop
where the binding and restoration is carried out, modern equipment is used to make the
covers for the documents and to bind and restore the manuscripts. Restoration is a
highly technical profession which necessitates the completion of a training programme,
and is not to be confused with binding. Nowadays preservation and restoration
techniques are highly developed, with continuous research in the domain, and those
involved must keep abreast of developments in research. At present the construction of the
protection boxes for the manuscripts
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Physical preservation is an essential aspect of the safe keeping of the manuscripts and, constitutes the units principal activity.
cognisant of this, the Ahmed Baba Institute equipped itself with a restorationpreser- The technique used consists of
vation unit in 2000. Those employed in this unit include local artisans and graduates assembling several pieces of card-
from the National Arts Institute of Mali. board, previously cut up according
The work in this unit consists of clearing the manuscripts of dust, regenerating the inks to the dimensions of the manuscript
or restoring those manuscripts which are deteriorating before making the protection to be protected. Once assembled,
boxes to ensure more long-term preservation. Prior to being restored, the manuscripts the pieces of cardboard are then
undergo the following procedure: wrapped in a neutral (acidfree) fabric
1 Transport from the storage room to the workshop. which is in turn covered with
2 Recording the details of the file containing the manuscripts: number of manuscripts; leatherette of different colours the
number of folios; dimensions; identification of the type of binding. latter for purely aesthetic reasons.
3 Assessment of each manuscripts state of preservation. The finished product is a simple box
4 Identification of the destructive elements (acidity, mould, fungus etc.). with a lid facilitating the opening
5 Filming the manuscripts before preservation work is undertaken. and closing of the cover for the
6 Determination of the work to be done on each manuscript. documents without damaging the
manuscript or manuscripts. The
The manuscripts are scanned again after the preservation work has been carried out. At
boxes are designed to hold one or
present the construction of the protection boxes for the manuscripts constitutes the
several manuscripts, depending on
units principal activity. The technique used consists of assembling several pieces of
the volume of manuscripts. All the
cardboard, previously cut up according to the dimensions of the manuscript to be
materials used glue, paper,
protected. Once assembled, the pieces of cardboard are then wrapped in a neutral
leatherette are acid free. Thus
(acidless) fabric which is in turn covered with leatherette of different colours the
protected, the manuscripts have a
latter for purely aesthetic reasons. The finished product is a simple box with a lid facil-
longer preservation period.
itating the opening and closing of the cover for the documents without damaging the
manuscript or manuscripts. The boxes are designed to hold one or several manuscripts,
depending on the volume of manuscripts. All the boxes are numbered. All the
materials used glue, paper, leatherette are acid free. Thus protected, the manuscripts
have a longer preservation period.
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 297
Digitisation in progress at the
Ahmed Baba Institute.
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The role of the South African specialists who have worked in Timbuktu to train local
conservators has been invaluable.
Digitisation
This is one of the sections most recently created by the Institute in collaboration with
technical and financial partners. It was created out of concern for safeguarding the
original manuscripts and facilitating their accessibility to a maximum number of
researchers, by making the written documents available in another medium. At the
time of writing, 55 500 pages of 325 manuscripts had been digitised.
Digitisation work consists of digitising (scanning) each manuscript page by page. The
work is carried out on the software Adobe Photoshop. The resolution used is 150 PPP
(Point-to-Point Protocol). The Tiff format is used for registering the back-up of a
maximum amount of data, as the JPEG format only accepts part of the image. The
digitised pages are then codified for consultation and identification. The digitisation
work is carried out using a flat, cold-light scanner (CanoScan FB121OU). On average,
100 pages are digitised daily. The Institute has three functional scanners. Following
this, the manuscript is saved on to CD with its identification sheet.
Digitisation is important for the preservation of the manuscripts: it allows for minimum
handling of the original documents by researchers, documents which are often fragile on
account of their age, and protects them from further deterioration; the CDs containing
the manuscripts constitute a very useful form of safeguarding and preservation; the Zoom
Tool or the colour level can be used to render legible those manuscripts which have
deteriorated; the digitised documents will also form a virtual library on the internet
(the manuscripts digitised as TIFF files will be converted to JPEG).
Cataloguing
Cataloguing is an important aspect of the work done on manuscripts. It allows for the
identification and indexing of the documents. This work consists of reading the
document meticulously and selecting 33 items of information from each manuscript.
This information is then entered on a data identification sheet together with the
number of the manuscript, the identity of the author and the document, its physical
condition, a summary of the document and the bibliographic sources referred to in the
document. After this, the data identification sheets are captured on MS Word software.
Depending on the volume, the condition and the theme of the manuscript, each
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This work is important because it identifies each manuscript and gives some idea about
its content. The data identification sheet is a useful tool for researchers who may work with
the manuscript. The identification sheet also accompanies the digitised manuscript on
CD. It will consequently enable us to develop a manuscript database and thereby facilitate
accessibility on intranet or internet once the Institute is connected, thus opening up
access to the manuscripts to the outside world. It will also play a part in publishing a
catalogue of the manuscripts for the Institute. At the time of writing, 2 224 manuscripts
had been processed, catalogued and captured on MS Word.
Training
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 299
The Institute receives international experts chosen by Unesco and the Institute to
supervise its activities and provide training (Hubert Emptoz for digitisation and Jean-
Marie Arnoult for preservation).6 Each year, training over a period of two to four
months is given to library workers in Bamako and in Timbuktu, as well as in other
countries, for example France.
Within the scope of its collaboration with the Institute, South Africa receives library
workers each year for a series of training courses at the National Archives of South
Africa. Some of the difficulties encountered in the training process are:
the size of the Institutes premises, which were originally designed for a limited
number of workers and are too small to host more training staff;
the high cost of importing consumables and other materials needed in the training
courses, and that are not available on the Malian market;
the shortage of equipment such as presses and cutters (at present there is only one
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Training of personnel is imperative as much for the Institute as for the private libraries.
However, manuscript libraries are currently not sufficiently well established to generate
funds with a view to professionalising their personnel. For this reason it is important to
consider creating a course in library science at Bamako University. Efforts in training
will come to naught, though, if other incentives are not given: financial, material and
legal protection of the manuscripts in order to create professions for the trainees to
move into.
REFERENCE
Hunwick J (1999) Al-Sadis Tarik al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents. Leiden: Brill
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
THE AHMED BABA INSTITUTE OF HIGHER ISLAMIC STUDIES AND RESEARCH 301
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302
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 21
The origins of the Arabic Literature of Africa project go back almost 40 years, though its Certainly, before the 1950s little
inspiration originates even before that. In 1964 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, I was known about the Arabic writings
initiated a project called the Centre of Arabic Documentation. The objective of the of Africa south of Egypt and the
project was to microfilm Arabic manuscripts from northern Nigeria, and to catalogue Maghrib, although one or two
and analyse them. As part of the project I started in the same year to publish a journal collections of such manuscripts did
called Research Bulletin through the universitys Institute of African Studies. In the third exist in Europe most notably the
issue of the journal, in July 1965, I announced in the introduction that a project had library of al-Hajj Umar b. Said al-
been conceived to assemble biographical information about authors of Arabic writings Futi and his descendants, seized by
and the works they had written, based on existing sources, and supplemented by infor- French colonial forces in Sgou in
mation arising from the manuscripts that had been microfilmed. The eventual aim was 1890 and preserved in the Biblio-
to bring all this information together and publish it in a bio-bibliographical volume on thque Nationale in Paris, but left
West African Arabic writers. The model for this volume was the celebrated multi- uncatalogued for almost a century.
volume work by the German scholar Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen
Literatur: two original volumes (later revised and updated) and three supplementary
volumes all published in the 1930s and 1940s. These volumes covering Arabic writing
tradition from Morocco to India comprise a total of 4 706 pages, but have only four
pages referring to Arabic writings in sub-Saharan Africa. Certainly, before the 1950s
little was known about the Arabic writings of Africa south of Egypt and the Maghrib,
although one or two collections of such manuscripts did exist in Europe most notably
the library of al-Hajj Umar b. Said al-Futi and his descendants, seized by French
colonial forces in Sgou in 1890 and preserved in the Bibliothque Nationale in Paris,
but left uncatalogued for almost a century.
In view of the absence of any guide to sub-Saharan Arabic writings, and the evident
richness of such a tradition in West Africa, the idea of creating such a guide for West
Africa grew in my mind, though at that time I thought that it would all be contained
the project from West Africa to include the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. We decided
that we would, as it were, divide the continent between ourselves. Whilst I would focus
on Africa west of Lake Chad, OFahey would work on Africa to the east of Lake Chad,
covering the Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and East Africa. The first product of this enter-
prise was a journal called Arabic Literature of Africa: A Bulletin of Biographical and
Bibliographical Information, of which three issues were published through the Program of
African Studies at Northwestern University between 1985 and 1987.
In the early 1990s we began to plan publication of a series of volumes of such infor-
mation, and in 1994 and 1995 the first two volumes were published by Brill Academic
Publishers of Leiden, Netherlands, the original publishers of Brockelmanns series.1
Volume 1, Arabic Literature of Africa: The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa to c.1900, was
compiled by OFahey. He was assisted by two Sudanese scholars, Muhammad Ibrahim
Abu Salim and Yahya Muhammad Ibrahim; two German scholars, Bernd Radtke and
Albrecht Hofheinz; and a Norwegian scholar Knut Vikr who, together with OFahey
and myself, had in 1990 launched at the University of Bergen an annual journal called
Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources, in which much information on African
Arabic writings has since been published, as well as short Arabic documents in their
original Arabic text with English translations.
All volumes of Arabic Literature of Africa were planned to refer to Sudanic Africa, a
term primarily referring to the Sahelian region, known in medieval Arabic as the Bilad
al-Sudan (land of the black peoples), but also to include the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
One other tariqa, originating from a disciple of Ahmad b. Idris, forms another separate
chapter. This is the Sanusiyya, founded by Muhammad b. Ali al-Sanusi, who was born
in Mustaghanim in Algeria in 1787 and set up his tariqa in what is now eastern Libya,
eventually spreading it through southern Libya and Chad, with branches of it going as
far east as Darfur in the Sudan and as far west as Kano in Nigeria.
Another major chapter deals with the writings of the Sudanese Mahdi Muhammad
Ahmad, who took over the area from the TurcoEgyptians in 1884, and his successors,
beginning with the khalifa Abd Allahi.
OFahey and Hunwick will draft a follow-up to this volume in the coming years, with
some Sudanese and European collaborators, dealing with Arabic writings of the West
Africa in the twentieth century, including material outside the intellectual tradition,
such as the writings of the famous novelist al-Tayyib Salih. This will constitute Volume
5 of Arabic Literature of Africa.
The volume starts off with a chapter entitled The Central Sudan before 1800, beginning
with a poet called Ibrahim b. Yaqub al-Kanemi, who died around 1212 and is known to
us through poems he composed when he was in Morocco and Spain (Andalusia), parts
of which were recorded in writings by Arabic authors of those regions. He was certainly
the earliest known West African writer, but by the sixteenth century many more writers
Shaykh Uthman and his successors, right down to the wazir Junayd (d.1992), who
assembled a great library of manuscripts and himself wrote some 50 works and a diwan
of poetry, and to whom Volume 2 was dedicated. Other chapters deal with writers of
other areas such as Kano, Katsina and Bornu, with two chapters recording writings of
scholars of the Yoruba-speaking region of south-western Nigeria (Ilorin, Ibadan and
Lagos), both compiled by Stefan Reichmuth. A final chapter focuses on polemical liter-
ature for and against Sufism, chiefly compiled by Muhammad Sani Umar.
known as Arewa House (located in Kaduna), is run by Hamidu Bobboyi, who recently
negotiated agreements with the sultan of Sokoto and the emir of Kano to undertake
cataloguing of their manuscript collections, which will most likely contain documents
of historical interest as well as works of the Islamic intellectual tradition.
UNITED STATES
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LOCATION INSTITUTE FOR AN OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION LOCATION INSTITUTE FOR AN OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION
ACCRA National Archives of Ghana NEW HAVEN Malian Arabic Manuscript Microfilming See Nemoy (1965)
Project. Sterling Library, Yale University
ABIDJAN Institut dHistoire, dArt et
dArchologie Africaines NIAMEY Institut de Recherche en Cyclostyled list in situ. Also Kani (1984)
Sciences Humaines
ALGIERS Fonds Ben Hamouda,
Bibliothque Nationale dAlger PARIS Bibliothque de lInstitut de France See Smith (1959a); Hunwick & Gwarzo (1967)
BOUDJBEHA Private library of Shaykh Bay See ISESCO (1988) Bibliothque Nationale, See Ghali et al. (1985); Vajda (1950); Smith
b. Zayn b. Abd al-Aziz of Boudjebeha (1959b); Sauvan & Vajda (1987)
CAIRO Arab League/Jamiat al-duwal See Sayyid (195463) Muse des Arts dAfrique et dOcanie See Adnani (200001)
al-arabiyya: Mahad al-makhtutat
RABAT Khizanat Muassasat Allal al-Fasi See al-Harishi (19921997)
al-Azhar University Library See al-Azhar University Library (1949)
Al-Khizana al-amma See al-Tadili & al-Murabiti (1997);
Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya See Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (1924-42) al-Tumi (1973). Also card indexes in situ
DAKAR Institut Fondamental dAfrique Noire, See Diallo et al. (1966); Mbaye & Mbaye Al-Khizana al-Hasaniyya See al-Arbi al-Khattabi (19801987)
Universit Cheikh Anta Diop (1975); Mback & Ka (1994) (Bibliothque Royale) and catalogues in situ
DIOURBEL Maktabat Serigne Mor Mbaye Ciss See Kane (1997) Mahad al-Dirasat al-Ifriqiyya, Jamiat No published catalogue
EVANSTON Northwestern University Muhammad al-Khamis (Institut des
Louis Brenners collection of xerox Catalogue in situ Etudes Africaines, Universit Mohammed V)
copies of Arabic books published Bibliothque Gnrale et Archives
in Africa du Maroc See Unesco (1962)
Umar Falke collection Database catalogue in situ SAL al-Khizana al-ilmiyya al-Subayhiyya See Hajji (1985/1405)
Hiskett Legacy collection Catalogue in situ (Subayhiyya Library)
John O Hunwick collection
John Naber Paden collection Catalogue in situ. Also see Saad (1980) SHINQIT Private libraries of Ahl Habut, Ahl Ahmad See Yahya (1997)
Ivor G Wilks Field Notes (copies Sharif, Ahl Hamanni, Ahl Abd al-Hamid,
available at the Institute of African Ahl Luda and Ahl al-Sabt
Studies, University of Ghana, and TAMGROUT Library of the Nasiriyya zawiya See al-Mannuni (1985)
Rhodes House Library, Oxford)
TIMBUKTU Ahmed Baba Institute See Ahmed Baba Institute (1995-98)
FEZ Library of Al-Qarawiyyin See Bel (1918); al-Fasi (1979)
Mamma Haidara Manuscript Library See Sayyid (2001)
THE HAGUE See Voorhoeve (1980)
TETUAN Al-Khizana al-Amma (General Library See Al-Khizana al-Amma (1981)
JOS Nigerian National Museum See Arif & Hakima (1965) of Tetuan)
KADUNA National Archives of Nigeria See Muhammad (1995); Last (1966, Maktabat al-Jami al-Kabir (Bibliothque See Dilayru (1977)
1967); and index in situ de la Grande Mosque, Tetuan)
KAOLACK Maktabat al-Hajj Ibrahim Niyas See Kane (1997) TIVAOUANE Maktabat al-Hajj Malik Sy See Kane (1997)
LEGON Institute of African Studies, University of See Boyo et al. (1962); Martin (1966); TUNIS Dar al-Kutub al-Qawmiyya (National See Mansur (1975)
Ghana. Copies available at the African Odoom & Holden (1965, 1967, 1968) Library of Tunisia)
Studies Library, Northwestern University,
Evanston, Illinois Maktabat al-Abdaliyya See Maktabat al-Abdaliyya (190811)
LONDON British Library See card index in situ Bibliothque de la Mosque de Zeitouna
School of Oriental and African Studies, See Gacek (1981) WADAN Private libraries of Ahl Muhammad See Yahya (1997)
University of London b. al-Hajj, Ahl al-Kitab, Ahl Dahi, Ahl Idi,
Ahl Yaya Buya and Ahl Ahmad Sharif
MARRAKESH See bin al-Arabi (1994)
YALE See Nemoy (1965).
MEKNES Maktabat al-Jami al-Kabir See Dilayru (1977)
ZARIA Northern History Research Scheme, See al-Bill (196787); and card index in situ
al-Khizana al-amma See Dilayru (1977) Department of History, Ahmadu Bello
University
UNITED
KINGDOM NETHERLANDS
London Hague
Paris
FRANCE
Algiers Tunis
Tetuan
Rabat Meknes TUNISIA
Fez
MOROCCO
Marrakech
Cairo
Tamgrout
ALGERIA
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EGYPT
Shinqit
MALI
MAURITANIA Boudjbeha NIGER
Timbuktu
SENEGAL
Tivaouane
Dakar Diourbel
Kaolack Niamey
Zaria
Kaduna
CTE Jos
DIVOIRE NIGERIA
GHANA
Accra
Abidjan (Legon)
an item to purchase a xerox copy. As a result of this accessibility policy, Professor Ivor
Wilks the leading expert on the history of Muslim communities in Ghana, and a
director of the project purchased copies of every manuscript, and later donated this
collection to Northwestern University. The Arabic collection in Northwestern
Universitys Africana Library also contains a collection of some 3 000 manuscripts
obtained through the sons of a deceased Tijani scholar of Kano, called Umar Falke
(d.1962), and some 500 items obtained by Professor John Paden in Nigeria. This latter
collection not only contains original manuscripts, but also locally published reproduc-
tions of some Arabic (and Hausa) writings by Nigerian scholars. These published
versions, which I have designated as market editions since they are openly sold in
marketplaces, have been added to by myself (over 400 items), first from Nigeria and
later from Senegal, where such a manuscript publication method is also popular.
The richest West African private libraries so far known to me are the two famous ones
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of Timbuktu first of all the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library, organised and run by
Abdel Kader Haidara (see Chapters 17 and 18 in this volume). This contains some 5 000
manuscripts, just over 3 000 of which are already described in a catalogue published by
the al-Furqan Foundation, with a volume of the remainder still awaiting publication.
They are stored in a well-designed building, but are awaiting scientific conservation
and digitisation. They consist of a wide range of writings, both in topic and origin of
author, although a considerable number are by authors of the Timbuktu region. The
other important private library is the so-called Fondo Kati, a collection of some 3 000
manuscripts belonging to members of a clan descended from the famous sixteenth-
century historian Mahmud Kati, author of the Tarikh al-fattash. The collection is now
located in Timbuktu (with many more items still with family members in the village of
Kirshamba, about 161 kilometres to the west of Timbuktu) and is under the direction
of Ismal Diadi Haidara and his brother Ousmane Haidara. This extraordinary
collection contains some manuscripts whose creation goes back to the sixteenth
century, whilst within it is a beautiful copy of the Quran copied in Turkey in 1420.
Unfortunately the manuscripts have not yet undergone scientific conservation, but
recently a building was constructed where they can be safely housed. Now that this has
been done, it will be possible to catalogue them, although in 2001 the German scholar
Albrecht Hofheinz put together a draft catalogue on behalf of the Institute for the
Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (Isita).
Other major libraries include the remainder of the library of Boularaf, a man of Moroccan
origin who settled in Timbuktu early in the twentieth century. Following his death in
1955, the majority of his manuscripts were inherited by a son of his and given, after 1970,
to the Ahmed Baba Institute. The remainder of the collection is looked after by his
grandsons, but is neither conserved nor catalogued. Also important is the library of
Houmal, the imam of Jingere-Ber Mosque, which was for years buried below ground and is
now being removed and is in urgent need of conservation and cataloguing. There are many
other libraries in Timbuktu Abdel Kader Haidara, in an article published in 1999 (in
Elsewhere in West Africa there are important public and private collections. In
Niamey, the capital of Niger, there is a large public collection at the Institut de
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Overall, the IRSH collection covers a wide geographical area, stretching from the old
Kanem-Bornu region across Hausaland, through the Niger Bend, and northwards to Air
and the Saharan regions, and ranges chronologically from the 14th century to the
present day. Materials relating to state formation, interstate and external relations,
are contained in the collection. The collection also houses important material on various
Islamic sciences such as fiqh (jurisprudence), tasawwuf (Sufism), tawhid (theology),
tafsir (exegesis), and related disciplines. A great deal of literature of North African and
Middle Eastern origin is included within the IRSH collection. The Western Sahara
is another area of provenance of mss in the IRSH collection. The Shinqit region in
particular has a long-standing tradition of literary activity. The IRSH possesses a
photocopy of a manuscript in the authors handwriting of the Izalat al-rayb wal-shakk
wal-tafrit fi dhikr al-mu allifin min ahl Takrur wal-Sahra wa-ahl Shinqit by Ahmad
Abul-Araf [Boularaf] a work written in 194142, a biographical dictionary of
ulama of Takrur and the Sahara. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the IRSH
collection, and one which distinguishes it from other collections in West Africa is
its holdings of works by West African Sufi shaykhs of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries (especially writings of the Qadiri shaykh al-Mukhtar al-Kunti).8
The Arabic Literature of Africa project was one of the foundation stones of Isita, set up
by myself in the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University (Evanston,
Illinois) in collaboration with OFahey in 2001. The objectives of Isita include identi-
fication and analysis of Arabic manuscript collections, and the translation and publi-
cation of manuscripts dealing with African history and aspects of Islamic thought in
Africa. One of our ultimate aims is to map Arabic manuscript libraries in various
countries of Africa and to analyse their content. Also, I still plan to undertake more
work on Arabic Literature of Africa. Volume 6 on western Saharan Africa (Mauritania)
is one I shall work on myself, together with Ulrich Rebstock, the prominent German
scholar on Mauritania and hopefully with more help from Charles Stewart, who has
catalogued a private manuscript collection in Boutilimit in Mauritania. If Muhammad
Sani Umar becomes available which I hope he will I would wish him to compile a
volume on Hausa and Fulfulde (Fulani) writings of Nigeria and Cameroon,10 together
with Hamidu Bobboyi and perhaps with Ibrahim Mukoshy who, in the 1960s, was my
assistant in the Centre of Arabic Documentation in Ibadan, and is now a professor of
Nigerian languages at the University of Sokoto.
Western Sudanic Africa constitutes a large and diverse region. Arabic Literature of Africa
Volume 4 only attempts to cover certain parts of it those where sufficient research has
been done, and where a strong manuscript tradition exists. To a large extent this also
reflects the areas where Islamic scholarly and literary traditions have been most prominent.
One of the key centres of Islamic scholarship, from a millennium ago right down to the
twentieth century, has been Timbuktu, and not only the city itself though this was
But such Saharan peoples were not the sole source of Islamic knowledge in Timbuktu
at that period. In fact, the most celebrated member of the Aqit clan, Ahmad Baba
(15561627), had as his principal shaykh a Juula scholar from Jenne, Muhammad
Baghayogho. The Juula were undoubtedly among the first West Africans to acquire
Islamic knowledge, being originally a merchant group who traded gold with North
African merchants in Ancient Ghana. They may well have been influenced eventually
by Almoravid Maliki teachings. At some point in time (perhaps after the break-up of
Ancient Ghana), some of them settled in the Masina region. By the fifteenth century
they had opened up a trade route southwards from Jenne for acquiring gold that was
being mined in the Akan forests of what is now the Republic of Ghana. Some also
moved into the central Niger Bend region, especially Timbuktu, whilst others moved
eastwards to Hausaland. They played a significant role in bringing Islam to areas of
what are now the Ivory Coast and southern Burkina Faso. Another group of them,
originally settled in Diakha in the Masina region, dispersed westwards and became
celebrated as proponents of Islamic knowledge under the name Diakhanke (that is,
people of Diakha), better known as the Jahanke.
Timbuktu distinguished itself from the sixteenth century onwards as a centre of study
which attracted students from many parts of West Africa, and scholars of Saharan oases
from Walata to Awjila, and also from North African cities. The citys educational
reputation has led some people to speak of a Timbuktu university, beginning with Felix
Dubois, who wrote of the University of Sankore.11 While the Sankore quarter in the
north-east of Timbuktu certainly was an area which attracted many scholars to live in
it, there is nevertheless no evidence of any institutionalised centre of learning.
Teaching of some texts was undertaken in the Sankore Mosque, and also in the Sidi
Yahya Mosque and the Great Mosque Jingere-Ber but teaching authorisations
(ijazat) always came directly from the individual shaykhs with whom the students
region under the rule of the Moroccan forces from 1591 onwards. The Timbuktu
chronicle tradition appears to have spread far and wide over West Africa. In what is
now the Republic of Ghana there has been a strong chronicling tradition, beginning
with the Kitab ghanja in the early eighteenth century. Following the Moroccan conquest
of Timbuktu in 1591, many of the citys scholars dispersed and it is known that some
went as far south as the Volta River basin. That region14 was also a meeting point for
scholars from east and west. From the west came Juula scholars from the time of the
establishment of the trade route from Jenne, leading down to the town of Begho just
north of the Akan forests. Others established themselves in towns of the northern Ivory
Coast such as Bonduku, Buna and Kong, and eventually in Ghanaian polities such as
Wa and Gonja. From the east, in the late seventeenth century, Hausa merchants from
what is now northern Nigeria began to pursue their trading activities in the Greater
Voltaic basin, while in the late nineteenth century such activity brought in
traderscholars such as al-Hajj Umar b. Abi Bakr, originally from Kebbi, who settled
and made his scholarly reputation in Salaga.
In a very broad sense, Arabic writings of western Sudanic Africa may be classified under
four headings: historical; pedagogical; devotional; and polemical. Historical writings help
Muslim communities to establish and confirm their identities, a necessary exercise for
those living in remote areas surrounded largely by non-Muslim peoples, but also valuable
in terms of community solidarity for those dwelling in recognised centres of Islam, such
as Timbuktu, Arawan and Jenne. Only occasionally, starting in the twentieth century
(and under the influence of European colonial administrators), do we find a broader
and what might be called more secular approach to history. A notable example of this
is the celebrated Zuhur al-basatin (Plants of the Gardens) of the Senegalese writer Musa
Kamara (d.1943 or 1945), a broad history of the lands and peoples of Futa Toro and its
neighbours; some writings of al-Hajj Umar b. Abi Bakr of Kete-Krayke in Ghana
(d.1934) also fall into this category. Kamara also wrote works in verse that are of
Pedagogical writings arise from the need for students to have textbooks. Whilst texts from
outside West Africa circulated within the region, teaching shaykhs often abridged some of
them, wrote commentaries on them, or versified them so as to make them easier for
students to memorise. This was especially true in great educational centres such as
Timbuktu, but is also characteristic of the Greater Voltaic region where, no doubt, copies
of texts from elsewhere were rather more difficult to obtain due to the remoteness of the
region from the trans-Saharan trade networks. Noteworthy among such teachers was
al-Hajj Marhaba (d.1981), who wrote treatises on aspects of the Arabic language, but
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who was also noteworthy for his writings on Muslim communities of the region.
Devotional writings are common throughout West Africa, written both in Arabic and
in local languages such as Fulfulde. Both al-Mukhtar al-Kunti (d.1811) and his son
Muhammad (d.182526) wrote a considerable number of prayers which have been
preserved and re-copied over the past two centuries. Al-Mukhtar also wrote a major
work on devotion for the Prophet, Nafh al-tib fi l-salat ala l-nabi al-habib (The
Spending of Goodness in Prayer Upon the Beloved Prophet), which was commented
on by his son, who himself wrote a collection of panegyrics of the Prophet, al-Sitr al-
daim lil-mudhnib a1-haim (Prayers for the Prophet).16 Poems in praise of the Prophet,
and seeking his intercession, are indeed a popular form of writing. Ahmadu Bamba
(d.1927), the Senegalese Sufi leader, wrote dozens of such poems and these are recited
by members of his tariqa in chanting fashion rather like the singing of hymns in
Protestant Christian communities. Paper copies of many of these are available in the
form of market editions reproduced in Dakar. In the other widespread Sufi tariqa of the
Senegambia region, the Tijaniyya, there is a considerable volume of writing, especially
poetry, in praise of the originator of the tariqa, Ahmad al-Tijani, and beseeching him to
bless and intercede on behalf of his adherents. The most famous writer of such works
was the Senegalese Tijani leader Ibrahim Niasse (d.1975), whose al-Kibrit al-ahmar fil-
tawassul bi-awail al-suwar wa-bi-uruf al-ayat al-ghurar is in his Jami jawami al-
dawawin,17 which is made up of such poems.18 He also wrote and published a collection
of six diwans totalling nearly 3 000 verses, but these were in praise of the Prophet
Muhammad. Ibrahim Niasse himself became an almost legendary figure in West Africa,
and was regarded as a saint by many of his numerous followers. As a result, many writers
in the region wrote poems honouring him.
As for polemical writing, that is mainly a feature of the rivalry between the Qadiriyya
and the Tijaniyya tariqas, which surfaced in the mid-nineteenth century or, under the
influence of Wahhabi teachings, attacks on Sufism as a whole, generally in the second
Lights for Guidance of the Tijaniyya Group), an attack on the Tijaniyya and encour-
agement to its adherents to abandon it. Even in the 1990s in Senegal there was sharp
controversy over Sufism. Muhammad Ahmad Lo, a scholar with Saudi connections,
published his Taqdis al-ashkhas fi l-fikr al-Sufi (Dedication of Persons on Sufi Thinking)
in Riyadh in 1996, to which Shaykh Tijan Gaye wrote as a response Kitab al-taqdis bayn
al-talbis wal-tadlis wal-tadnis (Book of Dedication Between Deception, Deceit and
Pollution). In 1997 Muhammad Ahlmad Lo published (evidently in Saudi Arabia) his
doctoral thesis with the title Jinayat al-tawil al-fasid ala l-aqida al-Islamiyya
(Perpetration of the Corrupt Interpretation on the Islamic Doctrine), which consti-
tutes an attack on many interpretations of Islam, including both Twelver and Ismaili
Shiism, and Islamic philosophers, and culminates with an attack on Sufism. Western
Sudanic Africa is not, of course, the only locus of such polemics. Anti-Sufi writing and
responses thereto are also to be found in Central Sudanic Africa, specifically Nigeria.19
In addition to the abundant Islamic literature written in Arabic in western Sudanic Africa,
there are also Islamic literatures in African languages. The best known of these (and
perhaps the most abundant) is the Fulfulde literature of Futa Jallon in Guinea.20 Fulfulde
was also written in Futa Toro in Senegal, but little is known of it other than the famous
qasida of Muhammad Ali Cam (or Mohammadou Aliou Tyam), a supporter of al-Hajj
Umar, whose poem is about the latters life and work. In Senegal there is also writing
in Wolof, using the Arabic script (see, for example, Serigne Musa Ka), but it has not been
possible to incorporate much of that literature into Volume 4 of Arabic Literature of Africa.
In Mali, the Songhay language has also been written in Arabic characters and some
Songhay devotional poems are preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu, but
again, it has not been possible to list such material. Finally, it must be pointed out that some
Muslim writers of the twentieth century have composed works in French, or translated some
of their Arabic writings into French. Noteworthy among such writers is Sad b. Umar
b. Said Jeliya (known as Saad Oumar Tour), director of a school in Sgou, who has
Conclusion
The future may well see an increase in the amount of bilingual Islamic literature in both
francophone and anglophone countries as the madrasa system continues to expand. More
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and more Islamic schools are being established, many of them combining traditional
Islamic teaching in Arabic with elements of western disciplines, taught in either French
or English. What will be interesting to see is the extent to which more Islamic literature
is written and published in African languages a phenomenon that certainly grew during
colonial rule in Guinea. Some authors, however, even use traditional Arabic verse
styles to deal with contemporary political (even non-Muslim) figures, or to comment
on modern issues. Prominent among these is the Senegalese scholar and Arabic schools
inspector Shaykh Tijan Gaye, who has written poems about President Lopold Senghor
and Nelson Mandela, and another poem on Islam and humanitarian organisations.
NOTES
1 Brill has been a publisher of Oriental Studies for 220 years, and has produced some of the most celebrated writings
on Islamic religion and culture one of the most famous of which is the Encyclopedia of Islam, the second (and most
recent) edition of which consists of 12 volumes (published between 1960 and 2003 to which I have personally
made a number of contributions dealing with sub-Saharan Africa). The academic quality of Brills publications, and its
splendid publication appearances, make it literally a Brill-iant publisher. I now edit Brills new Islam in Africa series, and
Sean OFahey assists in editing the Oriental Studies series.
2 Hunwick & OFahey (1994: 123).
3 Currently, a new full cataloguing is taking place, plus digitalisation of the manuscripts.
4 Volume 2 of the Subsidia Bibliographica of the Fontes Historiae Africanae. See Ghali et al. (1985).
5 Formerly of Saint-Louis University, Senegal, and now of Columbia University, New York. Kane provided information for
Arabic Literature of Africa Volume 4.
6 Also published in Gaudio (2002).
7 The al-Furqan Foundation published the catalogue in late 2004.
8 Kani (1984: 41).
9 This refers to the Fonds Ben Hamouda in the Bibliothque National dAlger, in Algiers.
10 Although such writings are obviously not Arabic Literature (of Africa), they were written in those languages in the
Arabic script, and their topics are similar to those of the Arabic language writings of the area.
11 Dubois (1897: 275).
12 See Hunwick & OFahey (2003b: 62).
13 Called in Chapter 12 of Arabic Literature of Africa the Greater Voltaic Region.
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Boyo OE, Hodgkin T & Wilks I (1962) Check list of Arabic works from Ghana. Legon: Institute of African Studies
Brockelmann C (193743) Geschichte der arabischen Literattur (2 Vols & 3 Supplementary Vols). Leiden: Brill
Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (19241942) Fihris al-kutub al-arabiyya al-mawjuda bil-Dar li ghayat sanat 1932, Vols 18. Cairo
Diallo T, MBack MB, Trifkovic M & Barry B (1966) Catalogue des manuscrits de l IFAN. Dakar: Institut Fondamental (formerly
Franais) dAfrique Noire
Dilayru (1977) Qaima awwaliyya bi l-makhtutat min muallafat al-ashiqqa al-Muritaniyyin wa-jumla min al-Ifriqiyyin al-ukhar
fi l-maktaba al-maghribiyya. Communication presented to the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization
conference on Arabic manuscripts in Africa, Nouakchott
Dubois F (1897) Timbuctoo the mysterious. London: William Heinemann
al-Fasi MA (1979) Fihris makhtutat khizanat a!-Qarawiyyin (4 vols). Casablanca: al-Dar al-Bayda
Gacek A (1981) Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University
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Gaudio A (Ed.) (2002) Les bibliothques du desert. Paris: LHarmattan
Ghali N, Mahibou M & Brenner L (1985) Inventaire de la Bibliothque Umarienne de Sgou. Catalogue. Paris: CNRS editions
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Haidara AK (1999) Bibliothques du dsert: Difficults et perspectives. In Revue anthropologique. Paris: Institut International
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Hunwick JO & OFahey RS (Eds) (1995) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of Central Sudanic Africa (Vol. 2). Leiden: Brill
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Nearly 15 years ago I had an opportunity to microfilm a private library of Arabic One of the challenges of identifying
materials in Boutilimit in southern Mauritania built, initially, by a scholar who had local manuscript fragments, and of
spent a dozen years studying under Kunta tutelage in the Timbuktu region, 181224. gaining some relative sense of the
This project led to my developing the first version of a bilingual manuscript catalogue value of particular collections, is our
database and search engine to record the roughly 110 000 folios of material.1 That lack of more than a notional feel for
particular effort was written up and hard copies of the collection description were what constitutes standard (not to
subsequently made available to a number of libraries, as was the national collection at mention extraordinary) scholarly
the Mauritanian national repository for Arabic manuscripts when the software became activity in particular collections.
available in 1991. Subsequent to entering those two collections, others were added in
the early 1990s before the project nearly came to a halt while my attentions were
focused elsewhere. Only in November 2006 was the material transferred to a new
platform, an easily accessible, internet-based site with an enhanced search engine. In
this database we have amassed the largest single collection of titles and authors (over
20 000 extant Arabic manuscript sources) from West African collections, focused in
the main on the libraries in and around Timbuktu. This chapter will propose that this
database be utilised as a beginning for a universal, online resource for Sahelian Arabic-
script manuscript identification.
The literary heritage of Timbuktu has been greatly celebrated in recent conferences, on
websites, and by the generous subvention by organisations like the al-Furqan
Foundation for preserving and cataloguing existing libraries in that region. From my
own experience, one of the challenges with identifying local manuscript fragments, and
of gaining some relative sense of the value of particular collections, is our lack of more
than a notional feel for what constitutes standard (not to mention extraordinary)
scholarly activity in particular collections. Indeed, how to assess the Arabic literary
heritage of pre-colonial West Africa remains elusive in the absence of a comparative
base for evaluating individual collections, complicated even further by the recent (near
exclusive) attention that has been heaped on Timbuktus rich heritage at the expense
The database presented here began with the first version of our Arabic Manuscript
Management System (AMMS), created in 1987 as a finding aid for an Arabic
manuscript microfilm project that preserved over 100 000 folios of material from the
private library of Haroun ould Sidiyya in Boutilimit, Mauritania.2 Our object then was
to produce a bilingual hard-copy finding aid for that collection, which consisted of
diverse types of material ranging from letters and notes to local histories and classical
treatises in the Islamic sciences. Our goal was a simple and quick computer-generated
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entry system using untransliterated Latin letters alongside Arabic entries that could be
equally accessible to readers (and input specialists) using either Arabic or English. Our
end product was a bilingual catalogue with indices that would be user-friendly in both
languages. The original AMMS program was written using an early Arabdos software
to create 31 possible fields for entries about each manuscript and with an indexing
capability to cross-reference and locate up to three fields in either language. Two years
later the same software was employed to input a finding aid and generate indices for the
Mauritanian national manuscript collection at the Institut Mauritanien de Recherche
Scientifique (IMRS).3 The possibility of expanding the number of entries to include
other West African collections prompted a second version of AMMS, on the same
platform, with the capability of merging files into a single database. Subsequently, in
the early 1990s other published catalogues and hand-lists from West African collec-
tions housed in Niger,4 Paris,5 Timbuktu6 and Evanston, Illinois,7 were entered in the
database. Taken together, over 19 000 records from these 6 collections were recorded
in the AMMSvers.2 database, possibly a majority of the extant titles for the West
African Sahel (excepting correspondence) at the time.
The research potential of a union index of authors, nicknames, titles and subject matter
in these collections of West Africas Arabic literary heritage, with the capability of
expansion as other collections are uncovered, became obvious. AMMS provided us with
a mechanism to reunite a literary tradition represented by tens of thousands of Arabic
documents across the West African Sahel that has been largely unknown beyond the
work of a small band of local scholars and an even smaller cohort of western-trained
Arabists. Even where these materials were accessible to researchers in public reposi-
tories, the importance of this literary tradition has been well masked by the disparate
systems used to record it and the dispersal of individual collections in Africa, Europe
and North America. The AMMS project seeks to bring together, in a single database,
a sizeable cross-section of these Arabic materials, despite their imperfect annotation
in Mauritania and Mali continued apace, and the numbers of additional manuscripts
now catalogued from new collections may have eclipsed the number of initial entries
in AMMSvers.2; we welcome the addition of these new entries into the AMMSvers.3
database to build this resource for future generations of scholarship.
The database is, purposely, a low-tech, simple program designed to be easily accessible
by users who may not have either sophisticated machines or detailed knowledge of (or
concern with) refined transliteration systems. The principle at work here is that once
enough data have been entered about specific manuscripts, it should be possible to
establish comparisons across the database and resulting identifications or likely identi-
fications with like works, thanks to a powerful search engine. At present the input
screens provide space for a title (in Arabic only), the form the work takes (generally,
poetry or prose with subsets of descriptors if available), subject matter (in Latin
characters and Arabic), author name, nisba, and familiar name in both scripts, date of
composition and authors dates, copyists name and, for correspondence, additional
identifiers, all in both scripts. Two larger fields at the close of each record allow for
additional information in Latin script and Arabic. Currently, we are consolidating some
of the lesser-used fields and adding fields for inputting the first lines of individual
manuscripts and an additional field to identify variants on the author name. But the
important thing is that these fields cover the basic identifiers traditionally used in
manuscript documentation and the search engine will function equally well in either
script or a combination of them.
The manuscript collections that form the base for this database are representative of
the Sahel region, thus allowing researchers a glimpse into the intellectual traditions
represented by five centres beyond the Niger Bend as well as Timbuktu. Early indica-
tions suggest subtle differences in the literary heritage across the breadth of the Sahel,
but for the purpose of simply identifying major influences and contextualising the
The manuscripts that make up the Boutilimit collection come from the private library
amassed by Haroun ould Sidiyya Baba (191778) who spent the last 30 years of his life
reconstituting the library and letters of his great-grandfather, the Moorish savant
Shaykh Sidiyya (d.1868), as well as his wider familys literary record from Sidiyyas
mentors in Timbuktu (Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti and his son Sidi Muhammad),
Sidiyyas son, Sidi Muhammad (d.1869), and his son, Sidiyya Baba (d.1926). At his
death Haroun left over 100 000 folios of manuscript material that was microfilmed and
catalogued in 198788 (the beginning of the AMMS project). The description of that
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process can be found in the introduction to the catalogue as well as several journal
articles that focused on the construction of our bilingual, computer-based finding aid.
Contents
The significance of this collection lies, first, in its very breadth roughly 100 years of
book collecting (c.18101910), interspaced with letters and treatises from and about
Shaykh Sidiyya, his son, grandson and two of his great-grandsons. This representative
work of four generations of scholars within the same family includes 700-odd pieces of
their correspondence, in addition to the literary works they consulted. Second, this
four-generation slice of intellectual life is linked to one of West Africas premier
scholarly lineages, the Kunta savants in the Timbuktu region where Shaykh Sidiyya
studied for 12 years (181023), and includes over 130 letters Sidiyya copied from his
Kunta mentors.
Access
One copy of the film is available for consultation at the University of Illinois Library
Archives, filed under CC Stewart Collection; two other copies of the film were
returned to Mauritania in the care of Baba ould Haroun, custodian of his fathers
collection, for deposit in an appropriate national repository. The originals of these
manuscripts remain in Boutilimit in the care of Baba ould Haroun.
The manuscripts that make up the Nouakchott collection were recorded in the AMMS
in 198889 from the hand-list of the national repository for Arabic manuscripts at the
IMRS in Nouakchott. The IMRS began purchasing Mauritanian libraries and
individual manuscripts in 1975 and by the late 1980s had acquired over 3 100 items
Contents
At the time this listing was compiled the IMRS collection was made up of manuscripts
from 72 libraries, mainly from the region of Trarza in the south-west quadrant of the
country and with a focus on manuscripts of local authorship. The AMMS listing
includes a number of items (493) that had not been identified at that time, but the
number of multiple copies in this collection points to the possibility that the contents
may be broadly representative of scholarly activity in the region adjacent to the right
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Access
The IMRS provides access to its collection by bone fide researchers who make appli-
cation through the Bibliothque Nationale in Nouakchott.
The manuscripts that make up the Sgou collection were recorded in the AMMS in
198889 from the catalogue prepared in 1985 by Ghali, Mahibou and Brenner,
Inventaire de la Bibliothque Umarienne de Sgou (Inventory of the Umarian Library at
Sgou). The collection has been variously called the Ahmadou Library and Fonds
Archinard (the latter after the French officer who seized the manuscripts at the time of
conquest in 1890). References to these manuscripts had appeared previously but
incompletely in a 1925 catalogue of Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothque Nationale,
and in a 1976 catalogue based on a selective inventory of the collection done in
194752. These efforts both omitted much material of interest to West African histo-
rians, which led to the entire collection being re-catalogued and microfilmed between
1979 and 1982; the inventory cited above was published three years later.
Contents
The Sgou collection is from the library of Ahmadu Seku, son of al-Hajj Umar, who
inherited his fathers conquests and ruled a territory increasingly under siege from 1864
until the French conquest in 1890. It contains numerous fragments and single-page
items and a large, valuable body of correspondence. Its disparate make-up lends it a
certain air of authenticity as a working library, a repository of day-to-day writings not
filtered by an owner self-conscious of his scholarly image.
The manuscripts that make up the Timbuktu collection were recorded in the AMMS
in 199091 from a photographed copy of the hand-list maintained at Cedrab, made
available for this project by the then director Mahmoud Zoubair. At that time 5 640
manuscripts had been recorded at Cedrab, a compilation of locally gathered materials
that has since grown to over 16 000 holdings. The al-Furqan Islamic Heritage
Foundation began printing a series of catalogues for Cedrab in 1995 with rather more
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attention to individual manuscripts than was possible for us as we worked from the
hand-list, and although the numeration of the first 5 640 items in AMMS.3 roughly
corresponds to the printed volumes, there is some discrepancy and researchers will need
to confirm the record numbers for the Timbuktu collection that are cited in AMMS.3
entries with the official published volumes.8
The order in which manuscripts are listed in these catalogues and the AMMS.3 numera-
tion are not always exact and the online description of this collection explains where
these discrepancies appear.
Contents
The Timbuktu collection was built from various individual collections in northern Mali
beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most important local libraries that were incor-
porated into the Cedrab collection was that of Ahmad Boularaf, a Timbuktu bibliophile
of Moroccan ancestry. By the early 1990s, Cedrab had become the major Arabic
manuscript repository in West Africa, recipient of Unesco (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and al-Furqan funding and with
facilities for researchers and manuscript preservation that are unparalleled across the
Sahel. Its early accessions reflect the bias found in other national repositories towards
classical works and major local authors, although more recent acquisitions (as reflected
in the published catalogues) include a large amount of correspondence and lesser works,
perhaps more reflective of the locally produced literary record of the region. This first
online version of AMMS.3 has not been coordinated with the additional data relative to
individual entries that appear in some of the published catalogues, and it must therefore
be used as a rough, and partial, guide to the Cedrab collections. We hope, in the short
term, to reconcile this early listing of Cedrab materials with the published record and
add those materials that had not yet been catalogued in the early 1990s.
collections that appear in AMMS and which feature heavy concentrations of classical texts, unparalleled across the Sahel.
the Paden and Falke private libraries tend to privilege contemporary, twentieth-century
material heavily influenced by writings associated with the Tijaniyya tariqa. Saad estimated
that about one-half of the Paden accessions were privately printed pamphlets and books
from Kano, Zaria and Cairo. Like the private library that makes up the Boutilimit collec-
tion, the Falke entries hold special interest as the library of an individual bibliophile.
Titles, authors and discrete collections aside, it has been the subject headings for entries
that have attracted our greatest attention. As an indicator of where we have arrived, to
date, in this ongoing process of identifying manuscript entries, I refer readers to the
AMMS website homepage (see endnote 1) under subject headings, where the
complete listing of our current classification system is available, in both Arabic and
English. The range of subject headings used in AMMS expands upon the subject
headings developed for the Boutilimit and Nouakchott collections, but in cases where
there is a minimal level of detail annotated, the subject headings have been recon-
structed from titles where these are available.
The subject headings that identify the AMMS entries were developed from the content
of individual manuscripts identified by cataloguers of manuscripts cited in AMMS,
rather than from an externally imposed set of classifications. The rubrics represent an
editing of those subject entries, their consolidation and standardisation, but
occasionally the same or similar material may appear under more than one general
rubric, following the best judgement of different cataloguers. Cross-references in the
subject headings noted above draw attention to the most common of these overlapping
references; references that appear in italics (as in see Belief: theology) indicate the rubrics
under which that particular material can be located, and so on.
placement in subcategories in this listing. For example, a subject search for the word
oaths will identify manuscripts in two different secondary headings under jurispru-
dence as well as under politics; a search for conundrums will identify records under
Arabic language, jurisprudence, literature and Quran; genealogy appears under three
different rubrics; slaves and captives appear under four different rubrics, and so on.
Currently, AMMS is under contract with the al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation to
incorporate listings of manuscripts from seven of the West African catalogues published by
the Foundation. We welcome additional material as well as suggestions for refinements.
1 See http://www.westafricanmanuscripts.org/.
2 This project was described in Stewart & Hatasa (1989).
3 Published by xerography. See Stewart et al. (1992).
4 Liste des manuscripts en langues arabe et ajami a lInstitut de Recherche en Sciences Humaines, Niamey Niger.
Niamey, Institut de Recherche en Sciences Humaines, 1979, no author listed.
5 Ghali et al. (1985) manuscripts seized by the French at the time of occupation of Sgou, conserved at the Bibliotheque
Nationale.
6 Based on the first 5 640 entries in a hand-list filmed at the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Ahmed Baba,
Timbuktu (Mali) in 1991.
7 Three collections, labelled as Paden (from a purchase by John Paden), Falke (the Umar Falke Library) both from
Kano, Nigeria and Hunwick, the collection of Professor John Hunwick.
8 See Ould Ely & Johansen (1995: records 11 500); Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbas (1996: records 1 5012 999; 1997:
records 3 0014 500; 1998: records 4 5016 000); and al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation librarians (1998:
records 6 0019 000).
9 Muhammad & Hay (1975).
10 Saad (1980).
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REFERENCES
Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbas (Ed.) (1996) Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques
Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu, Mali, Volume 2. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbas (Ed.) (1997) Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques
Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu, Mali, Volume 3. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbas (Ed.) (1998) Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques
Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu, Mali, Volume 4. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation librarians (Compilers and eds) (1998) Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de
Documentation et de Recherches Historiques Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu, Mali, Volume 5. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage
Foundation
Ghali N, Mahibou M & Brenner L (1985) Inventaire de la Bibliothque Umarienne de Sgou. Paris: CNRS editions (Fontes
Historiae Africanae, Subsidia Bibliographica)
Muhammad A & Hay R Jr (1975) Analysis of a West African library: The Falke collection. In B Mittman Personalized data base
systems. Los Angeles: Melville Publishing Company
Ould Ely SA & Johansen J (Compiler and ed.) (1995) Handlist of manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches
Historiques Ahmed Baba, Timbuktu, Mali, Volume I. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Saad E (1980) The Paden collection of Arabic materials from Kano. History in Africa 7: 369372
Stewart CC & Hatasa K (1989) Computer-based Arabic management. History in Africa 16: 403 411
Stewart C, Salim A & Yahya A (1992) General catalogue of Arabic manuscripts at the Institut Mauritanien de Recherche
Scientifique. Urbana: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
beyond
timbuktu
PART v
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332
THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU
CHAPTER 23
Undoubtedly the oldest Arabic documents concerning sub-Saharan Africa are those No attempt has ever been made to
excavated at Qasr Ibrim on the EgyptSudan border. These go back to the tenth and survey private manuscript holdings
eleventh centuries (with some items from the ninth century) and throw light on along the Nile or in western or
relations between Muslim Egypt and Christian Nubia in the Fatimid period eastern Sudan. Given the
(9091171). Unfortunately, they have yet to be published. exceptionally dry climatic conditions
and the existence of numerous Sufi
The following gives a brief survey of what is known about the situation concerning
centres, it is very probable that
Arabic literature in north-eastern and eastern Africa, beginning with the Sudan.
there are many more manuscripts
The modern Sudan republic has a very rich manuscript tradition, still largely to be found.
unexplored. The various public, and some private, collections are described in the
World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts.1 Here some 30 collections are listed. The oldest
manuscript so far located is a commentary on the Mukhtasar of Khalil b. Ishaq by al-
Jundi, dated 963 hijra (c. AD 1555), and there are others from the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. The largest public collection is located in Khartoums National
Records Office (NRO)2 which, in addition to pre-colonial and colonial administrative
records (numbering over 20 million items), houses about 15 000 literary manuscripts.
The NRO possesses one collection which is unique in an African Islamic context,
namely the administrative and judicial records of the Mahdist state (188298),
estimated to comprise some 250 000 items. Although much has been written on the
Mahdist state, this mass of documentation, particularly relevant for social and
economic history, has hardly been exploited. Additionally, the University of Khartoum
houses several collections totalling some 3 000 manuscripts; these include an extremely
valuable collection of medical manuscripts organised by the late Dr Tijani al-Mahi, as
well as a small collection of manuscripts from Mauritania.
xerographic and photographic copies of manuscripts and documents from the Sudan
deposited at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Bergen,
Norway. These include some thousand items from the various Sufi orders present in the
Sudan, particularly the various branches of the Idrisiyya tradition, judicial documents
and land charters from the Darfur sultanate, and the commercial records of a prominent
nineteenth-century Sudanese family of traders. A catalogue of this collection is in
progress.
Moving eastward to consider Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, our information is very patchy
and uneven. However, one contrast with other areas of Muslim Africa is that north-
eastern Africa has received the attention of a number of distinguished orientalists. Thus
Enrico Cerulli has written with great authority on the Arabic writings of Somalia while
Ewald Wagner has comprehensively catalogued, described and analysed the indigenous
writings, in Arabic, Harari and Silte, of the city state of Harar.5 More recently, researchers
such as Hussein Ahmed (Addis Ababa), Scott Reese (Northern Arizona University),
Alessandro Gori (Naples) and Jonathan Miran (Michigan State University) have been
actively engaged in mapping and cataloguing in the region. What is known to date of
the Islamic writings of north-eastern Africa is brought together in Arabic Literature of Africa
(Vol. 3A), entitled The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Northeastern Africa.6
East Africa (here meaning Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), particularly the coastal
region, is home to a literary tradition that is unique in Islamic Africa, namely a highly
developed literature in a living African language, Swahili, written for centuries in the
Arabic script. Swahili is the most widely spoken African language in Africa with an
estimated 100 million speakers. Swahili is also the Islamic African language with the
most highly developed literary tradition, inviting comparison, particularly in regard to
its poetry, with Farsi (Iran), Urdu (India) and Turkish. Presently, how old the Swahili
poetic tradition is, is difficult to say. Here a distinction needs to be made between the
physical survival of manuscripts and the longevity of the poetic tradition. The damp,
Swahili is also exceptional in another sense: it is the one African Islamic literary
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tradition, apart from those in Ethiopia and Somalia, that has a history of over 100 years
of study within an orientalist paradigm. German orientalists such as Van Velten and
Ernst Dammann, the Dutch scholar Jan Knappert, French and British missionaries and
scholars such as Edward Steere, Father Charles Sacleux and JWT Allen have
contributed much to the study of Swahili both as a culture and literature. Dammanns
catalogue of the Swahili manuscripts in Germany,8 together with that of Wagner for
Ethiopia,9 have set a standard of scholarship that needs to be emulated in other parts
of Islamic Africa. While much of this scholarship may be regarded as uneven, it has
nevertheless laid the foundation for the further study of Swahili literature.
The study of Swahili in the immediate post-colonial period became subsumed under
concerns of nation building and language planning, particularly in Tanzania, under the
influence of President Julius Nyerere. In recent years the situation has changed with the
enthusiastic adoption of Swahili, and Swahili poetic forms, by poets far from the coastal
area. This has led to an efflorescence of interest in classical Swahili poetry and, with it,
a concern with the preservation of existing manuscript collections. The largest of these
is to be found at the University of Dar es Salaam, preserved in the Institute of Kiswahili
Research. This collection of about 4 000 items was made by the late Dr JWT Allen in
the late 1950s and early 1960s; there exists a preliminary checklist by Allen,10 but the
collection is badly in need of conservation and cataloguing to professional standards. It
is hoped that a Norwegian aid agency will fund a programme to make a start in this
area. In addition to the Dar es Salaam collection, there is a small but very rich
collection of Arabic and Swahili manuscripts (the earliest from the late seventeenth
century) held at the departments of Antiquities, Archives, and Museums in Zanzibar,
comprising some 600700 manuscripts. Outside Africa, there are major collections of
Swahili manuscripts in Germany (see Dammanns catalogue) and at the School of
Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London. The Department of African Languages
at Soas has recently received a very substantial grant to prepare a proper catalogue of
the collection at the school.
The modern states and near-states that make up the region here defined as north-
eastern Africa comprise Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. Although in terms of
population the area is predominantly Muslim, leaving aside numerous small sultanates,
either tribal or urban in origin, the major state-forming tradition in the region is
Christian. The size and strength of Ethiopia has waxed and waned over the centuries,
but its existence has defined much of the experience of Muslims within its borders, or
in countries neighbouring it. Likewise, real or putative conflict between Muslims and
Christians tends to dominate (perhaps overly) surveys, for example by Trimingham,11
of Islam and the Muslim presence in the region. This is not to say that war and polemic
between Christian and Muslim have not happened, but the complexities of coexistence
have been understudied (Ahmed12 is a beginning).
Within the wider context of Muslim Africa, both north and south of the Sahara, the
region has a unique position within Islamic history, featuring as it does in the sira of the
Prophet. In about 615 the first hijra took place, when several small groups of Muslims
took refuge in the court of the Negus, assumed to be the ruler of Axum, in what is now
northern Ethiopia.13 The details of this episode or its historicity do not concern us here,
but its consequences, or rather the imagined recollection of its consequences, do. A
hadith is reported thus, Leave the Abyssinians in peace so long as they do not take the
offensive.14 From this tradition arose an ambiguity among the Muslim learned class
about the status of Christian Ethiopians within the Islamic Weltenschauung (world
view) that was embodied in a distinctive literary genre, the fadail al-habash or hubshan
(The virtues of the Ethiopians) which, in an indirect way, goes back to the Blameless
Aethiops of Herodotus. This is no antiquarian issue; in modern times, the status of
Axum as a place sacred to both Christian and Muslim has been, and still is, a
contentious issue between the two communities. Two political examples of overarching
In this respect, Ethiopia and its environs mark themselves off from much of the Muslim
Africa recorded in the volumes of the Arabic Literature of Africa series in that they
partake of some of the issues that mark the complex multi-confessionalism of the
Middle East and, for example, Muslim Spain. Jihad and counter-jihad there certainly
were, but there was also a scholarly polemic, exemplified in the writings of Enbaqom
and Zakaryas. Little of this is found elsewhere in Muslim Africa, although there are
some traces of it in the ChristianMuslim encounters of the late nineteenth century in
East Africa (see, for example, Ali b. Muhammad b. Ali al-Mundhiri in Arabic
Literature of Africa, Vol. 3B).
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It is from one of these cities, Zayla, that the first Islamic writings come, namely the
scholarly production of a group of migr Zayla scholars, largely based in Cairo in the
fourteenth century. Their surviving writings are recorded in Chapter 2 of Arabic Literature
of Africa (Vol. 3B). This tradition continued with the presence in Cairo of Ethiopian
Muslims, somewhat later designated as Jabart, and concretised by the establishment of
a riwaq al-jabartiyya or hostel (literally corner) for the maintenance of Jabarti Muslim
students at al-Azhar. The most famous Jabarti was undoubtedly the Egyptian chronicler
Abd al-Rahman b. Hasan al-Jabarti, whose writings fall outside our purview, but whose
family had a long connection with the riwaq. The longevity and complexity of Islamic
connections in the region are well illustrated by the fact that the riwaq al-jabartiyya was
to have an important role in the formal establishment in July 1960 of the Eritrean
Liberation Front, which in turn led to an Eritrean state in 1991. The Islamic strand in
the emergence of a distinctive Eritrean nationalism is a complex and ambiguous one.
The sixteenth and seventeen centuries were the high point of the MuslimChristian
confrontation between the Christian highland empire of Ethiopia and the largely
lowland Muslim cities. Here, for the first time unless one includes the period of
Abraha, the Sassanian Persian and Byzantine involvement in the region at the time of
It is very hard to generalise about the character of Islamic writings. In one sense, they differ
little from what will be found elsewhere in Muslim Africa. At one end of the spectrum
are the commentaries and super-commentaries on approved texts of fiqh, here largely from
the Shafii school which dominates the region. But it is clear that both in Wallo and
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Somalia, from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries onwards, there were
winds of change in the form of greater tariqa activity, an activity that may very loosely be
described as neo-Sufi. This activity was characterised by the establishment of commu-
nities18 of adherents to specific Sufi traditions in our region mainly Qadiriyya,
Sammaniyya, Tijaniyya, Salihiyya, Dandarawiyya and Idrisiyya and who were often
recruited from hitherto marginalised groups. Other new trends appear to include the
production of manaqib (virtues; praises) literature centred on both international and
local saints (Harari writings are rich in this category), and the production of popular
poetry, either in Arabic or in various vernacular languages; these two categories
obviously overlap. Here one can usefully compare the careers of Muhammad Shafi b.
Muhammad with that of Uways b. Muhammad al-Barawi, the one from central
Ethiopia, the other from southern Somalia. One research area that is still in its infancy
is the study of the links in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between
the Muslim communities of north-eastern Africa and those of the Islamic heartlands,
in particular the Hijaz and the Yemen.
The Islamic literatures of north-eastern Africa thus represent and reflect a variety of
different impulses. Proximity to the Middle East but not simply proximity, since there
is also the imperialist intervention of Ottoman Turkey and Khedivial Egypt to consider,
plus the Islamic policies of Italy and later Britain in Eritrea means that the nature of
the relationship of north-eastern Africa with the Islamic heartlands was different in
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kind from, for example, West Africa. In intellectual terms there were, indeed, the tradi-
tional patterns of shaykh seeking, of the transmission of isnads, both in fiqh and
tasawwuf, both from within the region and from without, the writing of commentaries
and the like, and the coming of new Sufi affiliations, especially in the nineteenth
century. But, because of the involvement of the region in both local and regional
conflicts that consciously or unconsciously cut across the religious divide, whether it be
Turk versus Portuguese, British and Italian against the Mahdists of the Sudan with
reverberations in Eritrea and western Ethiopia (see Talha b. Jafar), or Abdille
Muhammad Hasan versus the British, Italians and Ethiopians in Somalia, the nature of
Muslim/non-Muslim interaction was qualitatively different in north-eastern Africa by
comparison with most of the rest of Muslim Africa. North-eastern Africa is not quite
Africa, nor is it quite the Middle East; it partakes of both, but is not quite either, and
this is reflected in the complexities of its Islamic intellectual traditions.
No other living Islamic African language, including Arabic,19 has had such a long and
complex pedigree of scholarship brought to bear upon it as Swahili, both as a language
and a culture.20 In the western scholarly tradition, the first generation was represented
by Ludwig Krapf, J Rebmann, WE Taylor, Edward Steere and Charles Sacleux all
Christian missionaries, as were several key figures of a later generation such as Ernst
Dammann and Roland Allen.
But Krapf (d.1887) was not the first outsider to take an interest in Swahili. Rather, it
was a Muslim scholar from Oman, Nasir b. Jaid al-Kharusi (d.1847) who wrote at least two
works comparing herbal medicine as practised in Oman and Arabia with that among the
Christian missionary interest in Swahili was essentially utilitarian, a way into the
community, and eventually a means of proselytisation. The Universities Mission to
Central Africa, based in Zanzibar, was prohibited by the sultans from missionary
activity directed towards Muslims, but they were allowed to proselytise among freed
slaves. There was some tension between Muslim and missionary, which Bishop Edward
Steere (d.1887) helped to provoke by holding public sermons in the slave market, by
the side of which the Anglican Cathedral was built. The famous Zanzibari scholar Abd
al-Aziz b. Abd al-Ghani al-Amawi wrote a response to Steere, which unfortunately
appears not to be extant. However, one response has survived, namely a defence of
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Islam entitled Jawab ala l-Risala al-mansuba ila al-Masih b. Ishaq al-Kindi al-Nasrani by
the Ibadi scholar Ali b. Muhammad al-Mundhiri. However, the exchanges between
the missionaries and the ulama seem to have been essentially gentlemanly; al-Amawi
helped Steere with the latters work in translating the Bible into Swahili.
Relations between WE Taylor (d.1927) and many of the local scholars in Mombasa
seem to have been especially cordial, even if Taylor seems to have harboured ambitions
of converting Swahili Muslims to Christianity. This cordiality had important conse-
quences for Swahili literature, in that the friendly collaboration between Taylor and
Muhammad Sikujua led to the recording for posterity of much of the poetic production
of Muyaka b. Haji al-Ghassaniy, an outstanding poet of mashairi of a generation before
them. Without Sikujua and Taylor, Muyaka would be a lost voice. In Mombasa, and to
a lesser extent in Zanzibar and Lamu, there appears to have been an interaction
between two scholarly traditions that were able to respect each other.
In Lamu, the role of Muhammad Kijumwa poet, calligrapher, wood-carver and dance
master as an interlocutor with several researchers, among them Alice Werner, W
Hichens and Ernst Dammann, was of profound importance to Swahili studies.
In several respects the missionaries, and later colonial officials and nationalist language-
planners, had a specific agenda. One aspect was the romanisation of Swahili. As Frankl
has noted, there is no particular reason to romanise Swahili; the language is no easier
or more difficult to read in either script.21 The administration of German East Africa,
throughout its duration, regarded Arabic script as normal (Swahili: Kiarabu), and made
no effort to change it. Although nowhere explicitly stated, the decoupling of Swahili
from the Arabic script may be regarded as a way of de-Islamising the language.
Decisive in this was the Interterritorial Language Committees decision to adopt Kiunguja
(the dialect of Zanzibar, which was never an acceptable form in classical Swahili literature)
as standard Swahili,22 in preference to Kiamu (the dialect of Lamu) or Kimvita (the
First of all [at a conference meeting], I was asked why had Kiunguja or Zanzibar
dialect of Swahili been chosen for standardisation rather than the other forms, such
as Kimvita, which I had mentioned. I replied that it was because it was more used in
commerce than the other forms and its commercial value really dictated its being
chosen as the standardised form of the language.25
If one is talking of the late 1920s, when Mombasa was becoming the major port for East
Africa, this does not seem to be a very persuasive argument.
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Questions of definition
Swahili literature poses a major challenge in terms of defining boundaries. For example,
much of the tendi, or epic poetry writing in Swahili, was, and is, produced within an
Islamic milieu. However, a number of tendi are on modern secular themes. Many of these
have been included, either for the sake of their form or because they were written by people
from a Muslim background. Again, transitional writers that is, writers emerging from
a Swahili Muslim background, but who increasingly wrote on national or secular
themes (Shaaban b. Robert is an outstanding example) are generally included.
In other words, although at any given time more non-religious verse was being
composed, much less of it has survived. This is probably true of any literate Islamic
society. But here one must be careful to distinguish between secular in the sense of not
being about overtly religious topics, and western-influenced or modern. Indeed,
Muyaka b. Haji al-Ghassaniy, for example, wrote verse on secular topics, but did so
within the context of a Muslim community.
Shariff further argues that western scholars of Swahili have compounded the problem
by overemphasising the Islamic nature of Swahili culture and literature. He quotes
Knappert: Swahili literature is entirely Islamic from its inception in 1728 [the date of
the Hamziyya] until the advent of German administration in 1884.27 If Knappert is
defining Islamic, in a generalised cultural context, as the literary production of a
Muslim society, then it seems to be an unexceptional generalisation. This alleged bias
Following this line of argument further, Shariff continues by contending that the
sophistication of Muyakas verse and that of his contemporaries is such that it could
not have been invented by Muyaka or his contemporaries.32 The argument is
analogous to that used in the study of classical Greek literature: that Homer is too
sophisticated to have stood at the beginning of a literary tradition.
I argued above that the secular quota of literature (not necessarily in writing), in most
Islamic societies, was probably greater than what has survived until today. Indeed, this is
probably true of the pre-modern literatures of all the monotheistic religions. What was
written down and has survived is what the people of the time thought important, and
they tended to give priority to religious or homiletic literature. Secular literature was
transient, or survived for non-literary or marginal or ironically religious reasons; the
Arabic poetry of the jahiliyya (the ignorance) that is, the pre-Islamic period, survived
in part for its importance to the canons of Arabic style, essential to an understanding
of the sacred book.
Arabic Literature of Africa (Vol. 3B) is intended to be a record of what exists (or is
reported to have once existed) in the way of writings of a primarily Islamic character in
the region, although some discussion of oral forms will be included. Thus, no attempt
is made to engage in the debate about the identity of the Swahili people, their origins,
or the degree to which their literature is Islamic or secular themes on which there is
already a large and often polemical literature.33
Rollins notes:
Between the years 19001950, there were approximately 359 works of prose
published in Swahili; 346 of these were written by Europeans and published mainly
in England and Germany.34
When the time comes to write a general history of Swahili literature, to which hopefully
Arabic Literature of Africa (Vol. 3B) will be a useful contribution, the complex interaction
between orientalist, colonial administrator, Christian missionary and indigenous
(however defined) writers will present an analytical problem of the greatest complexity.
some of which survive from the early eighteenth century. Arabic was used for prose;
there are parallels here with Farsi and Urdu.
Swahili poetry is at once oral, sung and written; the complex interaction between the
three is beyond the scope of this overview.
Despite the pioneering research of Taylor, Dammann, Harries, the Allens (father and
son) and Knappert, our understanding of this tradition is still fragmentary. There is
much basic philological, lexicographical and textual work to be done before any
reliable overview can be given. No one has been more assiduous in warning against
premature generalisations than Jan Knappert in his various surveys. The comments that
follow must be seen in this context.
In presenting a very preliminary periodisation, one must begin with the poetic cycle by,
or about, the northern Kenyan coastal culture hero, Fumo Liongo, a figure of
anywhere between the seventh and seventeenth centuries, who may have existed or
not, and who may have written some, but surely not all, of the poetry ascribed to him.
What might be essayed at this stage is the assertion that it is within the Fumo Liongo
cycle complex that the origins of tendi as a poetic tradition may be found.
This latter point raises again, for the moment, the unanswerable question as to the
transmission of popular Islamic themes that were later transmuted into Swahili in epic
forms. Again, there is an ambiguity here, in that the earliest, physically surviving long
poem, the translation dated by Knappert to 1652 of the Hamziyya by Bwana Mwengo,
is a rendering into Swahili of a well-known Arabic literary text. What we know of the
Hamziyya points to a Pate origin, and the scanty evidence we have of the origin of al-
Inkishafi (The Souls Awakening), possibly the greatest of Swahili tendi, suggests a very
sophisticated poetic milieu in that city in the eighteenth century. The earliest
manuscripts are epics, chuo or tendi, for example the Chuo cha Herkal (Epic of Herkal),
one manuscript of which is dated 1141 hijra (AD 172829).
A further question for consideration in exploring the history of Swahili poetry is the
extent to which the forms and content of the poetry reflected the changing socio-
political realities along the East African coast.
Again, generalisations are probably premature, but one might argue that the post-
Portuguese period (effectively after about 1700) saw a certain political hegemony in
Pate/Lamu, the area that, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, produced
some of the classics of Swahili literature like al-Inkishafi and Mwana Kupona. This
political hegemony may be related to patterns of trade on the Benadir coast in Somalia
before the coming of the Omani hegemony, that is, in a northerly direction.
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In mid-nineteenth century Mombasa, under an assertive Mazrui clan fighting against the
inroads of Said b. Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar, there emerged new poetic forms,
supremely espoused by Muyaka b. Haji, namely the shairi, intimate, dialogic and
polemical. In terms of what has survived, it is the nineteenth-century dialogue/polemic
poetry that is the most substantial, if one accepts that most of the epics we have today,
outside the so-called classical corpus of tendi, are de facto modern. The bulk of the Taylor
(Soas) and Dammann (Berlin) collections comprise this genre. But this is essentially
occasional poetry where, as Harries reminds us, the occasion of its composition is often
beyond recovery. However, its recovery and interpretation are a challenge to future
historians of Swahili literature. This dialogic tradition, kujibizana, about which Ann
Biersteker has written much, has reinvented itself in the twentieth century in the
newspapers. It seems not unreasonable to see a continuity between Muyaka b. Haji and
Moza binti Mi, writing on the topics of the day in the Zanzibari newspaper Mwongozi.
While some poets will hail the coming of the East African shilling, or the birthday of
King George V, others deal with much more enduring themes.
Once established, the writing of tendi became an integral part of Swahili literary
culture. Arabic Literature of Africa (Vol. 3B) documents in detail the enormous range
and variety of the Swahili poetic epic tradition. Less well known is the writing of poetry
of a didactic character by, for example, the Brava poetess Dada Matisi, and Muhyi l-
Din al-Qahtani. Here one is at a meeting point between the past and modernity; Matisi
and al-Qahtani used Swahili (or in the former case, Cimini) to present Islamic
teachings in the vernacular. Out of this was to grow indigenous (as opposed to
missionary-inspired) Swahili prose literature.
The pioneers here were Muhammad al-Amin al-Mazrui and his brother-in-law,
Muhammad Qassim. The Mazruis and their Zanzibari counterpart, Abdallah Saleh Farsy,
produced a very considerable body of Swahili Islamic prose literature, which is duly
recorded in Arabic Literature of Africa (Vol. 3B). Most of this literature is didactic in
nature, essentially pamphlets or booklets giving elementary information on a variety of
Islamic topics. More ambitious are the various translations, beginning with the Ahmadiyya
version, of the Quran.35 The production of such literature has vastly increased in
recent years and there are few mosques that do not have a bookseller outside their
doors. There is some reason to believe that much of this literature is directed towards
women, who are becoming an increasingly visible element in Muslim public life.
From the 1930s there has developed a tradition of writing fiction in Swahili. Many of
the leading exponents of fiction writing write out of an Islamic milieu. The most influ-
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ential figure was Shaaban b. Robert, whose father converted to Christianity, but who
himself returned to Islam. Bin Robert is a transitional figure in the emergence of
Swahili as a national language.
Arabic writings
The earliest Arabic writing, apart from the classical Arab geographers, that throws
light on Islam on the East African coast is al-Sira or al-Maqama al-Kilwiyya (The Story
of Kilwa) by Muhammad b. Said al-Qalhati. It is an Ibadi polemic written around 1116
(hijri) by two brothers living at Kilwa, Ali b. Ali and Hasan b. Ali, who were actively
propagating Ibadi Islam in the Kilwa region.
The earliest indigenous Arabic writing is the Kilwa chronicle entitled al-Sulwa fi akhbar
Kilwa (The History Book Concerning the Pleasure of Kilwa). The original version was
written by an unnamed author who was born on 2 Shawwal 904 (13 May 1499). The
antiquity of this chronicle, the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa, is confirmed by the fact
that Joao de Barros (14961570) quotes a partial translation in his Da Asia (Of Asia),
first published in 1552.36
Little in Arabic has survived before the nineteenth century except for some Ibadi texts
dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, brought to Zanzibar under the
sultanate. In 1880 Sultan Barghash (r. 187088) established a printing press in Zanzibar
and embarked on an ambitious programme of printing Ibadi works of theology and
jurisprudence, involving a network of scholars from the Wadi Mzab (Algeria), Cairo,
Oman and Zanzibar (see Chapter 2 of Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. 3B).
Since the dominant madhhab in East Africa is Shafii, much of the Arabic writing
concerns that schools jurisprudence.
Abdulaziz MH (1994/1979) Muyaka, 19th century Swahili popular poetry. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau
Allen V (1963) A catalogue of the Swahili and Arabic manuscripts in the library of the University of Dar es Salaam. Leiden: Brill
Brockelmann C (193749) Geschichte der arabischen Literattur (2 Vols, 2nd edition 194349; 3 Vols Supplement,
193742). Leiden: Brill
Dammann E (1993) Afrikanische handschriften (Vol. 1): Handscriften in Swahili und anderen Sprachen afrikas. Stuttgart:
Franz Steiner
Erlich H (1994) Ethiopia and the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienne Publishers
Frankl PJL (1998) Review of Tarjama ya al-muntakhab katika tafsiri ya qurani tukufti. British Journal of Middle Eastern
Studies 25: 191193
Freeman-Grenville GSP (1962) The medieval history of the coast of Tanganyika, with special reference to recent archaeological
discoveries. Berlin: Akademie Verlag
Gibb HAR et al. (Eds) (19602004) Encyclopaedia of Islam (12 Vols). Leiden: Brill
Harries L (1962) Swahili poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Hussein A (2001) Islam in nineteenth-century Wallo, Ethiopia: revival, reform, and reaction. Leiden: Brill
Knappert J (1971) Swahili Islamic poetry. Leiden: Brill
Mazrui AM & Shariff IN (1994) The Swahili: Idiom and identity of an African people. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
Miehe G & Mohlig WJ (1995) Swahili handbuch. Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
OFahey RS & Hunwick JO (Eds) (1994) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of eastern Sudanic Africa to c.1900 (Vol. 1).
Leiden: Brill
OFahey RS & Hunwick JO (Eds) (2003) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of the Muslim peoples of northeastern Africa
(Vol. 3A). Leiden: Brill
OFahey RS & Hunwick JO (Eds) (in press) Arabic literature of Africa: The writings of the Muslim peoples of eastern Africa
(Vol. 3B)
Orhonlu G (1969) Habesh eyalati. Istanbul: n. p.
Paret R (192728) Die arabische Quelle der Suaheli-Dichtung Chuo cha Herkal. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen
Gesellschaft 1: 241249
Rollins JD (1985) Early 20th century Swahili prose narrative structure and some aspects of Swahili ethnicity. In E Breitinger
& R Sander (Eds) Towards African authenticity, language and literary form. In Bayreuth African Studies 2: 4968
Roper G (Ed.) (1994) World survey of Islamic manuscripts (Vol. 3). London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation
Shariff IN (1991) Islam and secularity in Swahili literature: an overview. In KW Harrow (Ed.) Faces of Islam in African literature.
London: J. Currey
Snoxall RA (1984) The East African Interterritorial Language (Swahili) Committee. Swahili Language and Society 22: 1524
Trimingham JS (1952) Islam in Ethiopia. London: Frank Cass
Wagner E (1997) Afrikanische handschriften (Vol. 2): Islamische Handschriften aus Athiopien. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner
Whiteley W (1969) Swahili: The rise of a national language. London: Methuen
The Zanzibar National Archives (ZNA) in the Kilimani district outside Zanzibar Stone
Town is home to a rich collection of material in Arabic and also a number of documents
in Swahili in the Arabic script.1 This material dates from the Omani era of East African
history (c.180090) as well as from the period of the British protectorate (18901963).
Among these is a large collection of Arabic manuscripts originating from Zanzibar
itself, from East Africa, Oman as well as the Middle East. There is also a rich collection
of Arabic correspondence deriving from the sultans of Zanzibar with contemporaries in
Africa, the Middle East and Europe, as well as qadi (sharia) court records, title deeds
and waqf files. The Islamic presence in East Africa has been both extensive and diverse,
and this is reflected in the collection held in the ZNA. The richness and variety of the
collection recently led it to be nominated for the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisations Memory of the World Register.2 In the past
decade, several researchers African, western and Omani have started to use this
wealth of material as direct sources for historical research. The nature of the
manuscripts and documents is almost exclusively Islamic, that is, a combination of
manuscripts deriving from all Islamic sciences, legal handbooks and rulings, poetry and
correspondence.
Challenging statements by earlier scholars of Islamic Africa, Scott Reese has pointed
out that texts of a religious nature are in themselves of historical value, in so far as they
demonstrate a level of knowledge, interconnectedness and technology at a certain
place at a certain point in time. Secondly, the texts themselves do contain valuable Opposite: An East African
historical information given that social and political issues of the day frequently tended Arabic manuscript dated 7 June
1905. It is interesting to note
to be played out precisely within religious discourse.3 In other words, the documents how much the calligraphic
housed in the ZNA provide not only phenomenological knowledge about Islam, but styles vary between East and
also concrete and direct historical evidence on a range of issues pertaining to East West African manuscripts.
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 349
African society. Finally, as archive files, they constitute not only a piece of Islamic
heritage but also a substantial part of the East African literary corpus.
What will be presented here is thus a broad overview of the content and recent research
conducted on the non-colonial records held at the ZNA. I draw on the work of several
of my colleagues as well as that of the staff at the ZNA who have, at times against heavy
odds, managed to preserve a collection which adds greatly to the literary heritage of
sub-Saharan Africa.
This chapter will outline the historical background to the existing collection, and
discuss historical topics and themes that have been studied and may be pursued further
with reference to the material. Finally, a note is added on the state of preservation in
the ZNA, including suggestions for its improvement.
c.183090
The new sultan of Oman, Sayyid Said b. Sultan al-Bu Saidi turned his attention
towards East Africa upon his ascent to power in 1804. At that time, Omani (and
general South Arabian) migration to East Africa had been an ongoing process for
centuries, dating back to at least the twelfth century. Clans of South Arabian origin,
such as the Mazruis and the Nabhanis, the al Shaykh Abi Bakr b. Salim and the Jamal
al-Layl had spread throughout the coast and merged with the existing population to
form a coastal urban aristocracy, centred on cities like Lamu, Mombasa and Kilwa. Ties
with their clansmen in South Arabia may have been weakened but were nevertheless
called upon in times of distress, such as during the Portuguese era.
Sayyid Said turned to Zanzibar, which he made his new capital in 1832. This shift was
not only a reactivation of previous and long-standing trade and tribal relations. It was
also a completely new form of direct Omani rule, which was aimed primarily at creating
a trade depot for the vast riches of the African mainland (slaves, spices, ivory and
copra, to name but a few).4 The new Oman, as represented by its new rulers, the Bu
Saidis, was maritime and mercantile, and able to subjugate the previous leaders of the
coastal towns. Direct Omani overlordship was not always welcomed, not even by clans
of Omani origin hence, for example, the long-standing feud between Sayyid Said and
the Mazrui clan of Mombasa during the 1820s and 1830s. Nevertheless, upon the death
of Sayyid Said in 1856, the Omani Empire included all of Oman, as well as the coast
of Africa from Guardafui to Cape Delgado.
Despite its massive commercial expansion, the Omani transoceanic empire stood little
chance of surviving the emergence of Great Britain as the main naval power in the Indian
Ocean. Internal Bu Saidi rivalry and direct British involvement led to a division of the
Omani Empire in 1861. The East African part of the possessions were headed by Sayyid
Saids son Majid, while his brother Thwayni became sultan of the Omani mainland.
Last but not least, Barghash brought a printing press from Syria along with experienced
printers, very much inspired by the spirit of reform then current in the Arab world. The
press was active from 1879 and launched an extensive programme of printing key
Omani legal texts written in North Africa and preserved as manuscripts in Oman.5 Its
most ambitious project was the printing of the 90-volume Kitab qamus al-shariyya
(Book/Dictionary on sharia) by the Omani scholar Jumayyil b. Khamis al-Saidi.
Unfortunately, printing ceased after 19 volumes. As far as can be ascertained on the
basis of the holdings in Zanzibar, the only work printed by a contemporary Zanzibari
was by the qadi and major intellectual Nasir b. Salim (known as Abu Muslim) al-
Rawwahi (d.1920). In 1898 the Sultanic Press published an account of a tour by the
young crown prince in East Africa.
Interestingly, the Sultanic Press is also listed to have published a travel account by al-
Rawwahi concerning a journey to South Africa. This is one of the publications that
cannot be found.
While earlier scholars such as JS Trimingham6 tended to view East African Islam as
mainly a function of oral transmission within the urban aristocracy, more recent research
has tended to emphasise a combination of two strands: an oral poetic tradition transmitted
in KiSwahili and a tradition of Islamic learning transmitted in writing and in Arabic.7
The emergence of the Omani sultanate in the nineteenth century tipped the scale in
favour of the written, Arabic-based strand of the tradition. By the 1850s, state-
appointed liwalis (appointed executive of law and order) made Omani power apparent
on the local level, and qadis were appointed by the state rather than brought forth
locally within the community. In addition, the economic powerbase of the Bu Saidis
was new-style plantation owners rather than a redistributive, local aristocracy. They
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 351
could afford to sponsor scholars, establish schools and encourage literacy, the prime
example being Sayyid Barghashs founding of a printing press in Zanzibar Town.
The Omani sultanate also meant that access to authority came to be regulated by the
central government rather than by the traditional patricians. In the same process,
Islamic knowledge was reinterpreted to mean a set of literary tenets that could be
checked, controlled and debated according to books.8 It can be argued that the process
opened up East African scriptural Islam to the wider Islamic world, in so far as writings
deriving from other parts of the Islamic world (of all Islamic sciences, including Sufism)
became known, copied and, in turn, discussed in writing by the new corps of highly
literate East African scholars. There emerged a new class of ulama whose outlook
transcended the local to an extent which had not been the case in the eighteenth
century. The body of material today kept in the ZNA is evidence of this process.
Although the Barghash era was marked by a strong emphasis on the Ibadi sect (the
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dominant school of Oman),9 the Shafii Sunni community of East Africa was also
marked by the same upsurge in scriptural learning. This was a surge most decisively
linked to the emergence of organised Sufism on the coast, associated with the orders of
the Shadhiliyya, Qadiriyya and the Alawiyya. Sufi manuals and poetry were copied
from their Middle Eastern originals and in turn commented upon by scholars fully
versed in scriptural Islamic scholarship. This development, too, is very much in
evidence in the Zanzibar archives.
Part of the collection consists of copies of works of non-East African origin, in some
cases with commentaries added by local scholars, thus adding a local point of view on
matters of Islamic scholarship. The majority of works, however, are of Omani/East
African provenance and thus make a very substantial contribution to the literary
heritage of the region, as well as serving as a demonstration of Zanzibars important role
as a seat of learning.
The collection includes treatises on Islamic disciplines such as law, theology, hadith,
fiqh, grammar, poetry and rhetoric. In addition, the collection includes valuable works
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 353
on medicine (herbal and prophetic medicine), magic, astronomy, navigation and travel
accounts (rihlat).
In terms of authors, the collection includes many Omani authors, especially within the field
of fiqh. In addition, the collection includes original copies by famous East African scholars
as well as by lesser-known authors. Several of the works of the famous qadi and Qadiri Sufi
Abd al-Aziz b. Abd al-Ghani al-Amawi (183296)11 are included in the collection.
and the reign of Sayyid Said b. Sultan and the latest to the 1940s and the reign of
Sayyid Khalifa b. Harub.
Roughly one-sixth of the collection derives from Sayyid Said, one-sixth from his
successors Majid and Khalifa, and one-sixth from Sayyid Barghash. The bulk approx-
imately half of the collection12 derives from Sayyid Hammud b. Muhammad and his
son and successor Ali b. Hammud, that is, from the period 18961911. This part of the
collection is also the most varied, containing everything from details on expenditure
on dinner parties, letters from editors in the Middle East, and notes on the plague to
wedding cards and family letters from the Omani branch of the family (including letters
from female family members). All in all, the collection is an invaluable source which
gives insight into the Bu Saidis relations with their East African cadre of bureaucrats
and landowners, their subjects, their Indian money lenders, their family in Oman and,
not least, with rulers, intellectuals and reformers in Africa, Arabia and the Middle East.
It thus constitutes a vital source for both East African and Omani history. It has yet to
be fully used as a source for historical research.
In addition, waqf records pre-dating the British Protectorate can be found in cases where
they were safeguarded in anticipation of later disputes over the waqf, or reproduced as
However, from the period after the British Protectorate, the picture is
very different. The ZNA houses a large collection of criminal and civil
cases14 that date from the period following the legal reform of 1908. In
this collection, the outline of the cases is in English but the qadis delib-
eration is in Arabic, at least up to the 1940s or 1950s.
Also for waqf records, the collection is very substantial from the period
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Setting aside the academic debate as to whether transmission of knowledge in East Africa Public announcement dated
has been primarily oral (understood as African) or scriptural (understood as Middle 27 September 1904 announcing
the opening of public schools
Eastern), it seems clear that the corpus of text held by the ZNA demonstrates an at
for children in Zanzibar aged
least 200-year-old tradition of production of text as a medium for transmission. The fact between 7 and 12.
that the texts are primarily in Arabic does not detract from their importance as a part
of the scriptural heritage of the region. As historical sources, the Arabness of the
material rather illustrates that the East African ulama of the day were conversant with
intellectual developments overseas and able to express their opinions in a language that
could also be read outside the region. Furthermore, it does not mean that oral trans-
mission in the vernacular did not take place, continuously and on all levels, from the
most basic Quranic schools to learned exegesis among the advanced scholars.16
Rather, our focus should be on what these documents can tell us about the intellectual
tradition evolving on the coast and the political and social circumstances in which it
emerged. Here, a number of interesting issues can be explored.
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 355
How were Islamic practices of a more popular nature (divination, astrology, spirit possession
remedies, dream interpretation) fused with the more sharia-based aspects of the faith?
works were printed by the Sultanic Press in Zanzibar and distributed widely in Algeria,
Egypt and Libya, as well as Oman.17
Corresponding evidence of intellectual ties for the Shafii Sunni population is likely to
be found among the documents held in the ZNA.
There are books on herbal recipes and on magic, and books outlining the tradition
known as tibb nabawwi (prophetic medicine). At least three copies of classics are
included in the collection, indicating that there was awareness and usage of them in
East Africa.19 The book Kitab al-rahma fi al-tib wa al-hikma (Book on the Mercy in
Prophetic Medicine and Wisdom) by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d.1505) may be placed in
the latter category. The copy in Zanzibar dates back to 1728 and is thus the oldest copy
manuscript in the archive and an example of the awareness of the Zanzibari scholars of
previous knowledge. The Shajarat al-arsh (The Tree of the Throne) is an example of a
locally produced treatise on medicine, the copy in the archives dating from 1936. This
treatise was written by the adviser of Sayyid Said b. Sultan, Nasir b. Jaid al-Kharusi
(17761847). It describes roots, plants and herbs used for medicine and magic.
Most of the books, however, date from the mid-to-late 1800s and have yet to be
surveyed beyond their index entries.
Astronomy/navigation
Not surprisingly, given East Africas close dependence on long-distance seafaring, a
number of the manuscripts in the collection deal with issues of astronomy and
Among the documents most directly dealing with MuslimChristian relations is a risala
dating from 1891 in defence of Islam by Ali b. Muhammad al-Mundhiri (18661925).
The Mundhiri family were Ibadis of Omani origin and were closely connected with the
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Bu Saidis as scholars and qadis. When the missionary presence became paramount in
Zanzibar during the 1880s, the ulama engaged in debate both verbally and, like al-
Mundhiri, in the form of writing. The text itself is a response to a document known as
The Apology of al-Kindi in Favour of Christianity over Islam, originally composed
around 830 by a Christian Arab upon an invitation to embrace Islam. In the
nineteenth century, the document (although clearly not in its original form) was used
by missionary organisations working in Islamic societies.20 In his response, which is
preserved in original in the ZNA,21 al-Mundhiri displays considerable familiarity with
Christian tenets and the historical context of the Christian gospels as he refutes the
arguments of al-Kindi by discussing such topics as the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.
Concerning the private collections, it is of some urgency that these be registered and
restored. They are in danger of rapid deterioration due to exposure to humidity and
ants, and of being sold to wealthy buyers arriving from Gulf states.
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 357
collection at the ZNA be catalogued and conserved in such a manner that it may be a
fully functional research collection. This effort should include both material conser-
vation as well as efforts to raise skills among the staff.
Given the finite size of the collection and its nature (mostly one- or two-page
documents), it should ideally be stored as a database where the documents are scanned
and accessible online, either on-site or from anywhere in the world. This would save
the documents from the wear and tear of handling. An urgent project would thus be
the indexing, scanning and material conservation of the correspondence. In addition,
such a project would have to include competence-raising components, especially on
the part of the archive staff.
At present, the archives do not have staff qualified in Arabic, Swahili and English. If
funding could be found, staff could be recruited from the State University of Zanzibar
or from private colleges such as the Muslim Academy, which produces candidates
Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
knowledgeable in all three languages. Secondly, the conservation staff at the ZNA have
not received training in conservation since the 1980s. It is thus proposed that they
receive in-house training on the most recent conservation methods from an expert
from either India or Europe. It is also proposed that one of the staff members respon-
sible for indexing receive training in either Khartoum or Bergen. This is necessary
because although the person may be conversant in Arabic, Swahili and English, they
are unlikely to be familiar with the process of transliteration of Arabic script into Latin
characters. In order to create an index useful to researchers, this is absolutely essential.
Finally, the technology necessary for the project would have to be provided, including
scanners, digital cameras and computers sufficiently powered to run a large database.
NOTES
1 Gratitude for information presented in this chapter is due to the staff of the ZNA, its director Hamadi Omar, its former
senior archivist Khamis S Khamis and its Arabic reader Omar Shehe, and to Professor Abdul Sharif, Director of the
Department of Museums, Zanzibar. Furthermore, thanks are extended to Lorenzo Declich and Friedhelm Hartwig, both
of whom have worked extensively on the collection.
2 See http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=12543&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload= 1062662650.
3 Reese (2004).
4 For the economic background to the Omani expansion, see Sharif (1987).
5 On the impact of the Matbaa al-Sultaniyya (Sultanic Press) founded by Barghash, see Sadgrove (2004).
6 Trimingham (1964).
7 Purpura (1997) has argued that the two strands of the East African intellectual tradition formed part of an integrated
whole until the emergence of the Omani sultanate in the nineteenth century. Only then, she argues, did the tradition
split into two distinct parts: an oral one associated with KiSwahili and a written one associated with the Omani state.
8 This process also opened up new avenues of social mobility, especially for recent arrivals from Arabia who were
already fluent in Arabic and conversant with the literary tradition of Islam. A clear example of this was the scholar and
qadi Ahmad b. Sumayt, portrayed in Bang (2003).
9 As a distinctive branch of Islam, the Ibadiyya traces its roots to the Kharijiyya secessionists of early Islam, from which
it eventually broke in 685. As the founding element of the Omani imamate and later the Bu Saidi dynasty it has been
marked by a tendency towards tolerance of other sects. By the nineteenth century, the main areas of Ibadism were
Oman, Zanzibar (and, by extension, the Omani/Bu Saidi strata of East Africa), southern Algeria and pockets of Libya.
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Purpura P (1997) Knowledge and agency: The social relations of Islamic expertise in Zanzibar Town. PhD thesis, City University
of New York
Reese S (2004) Introduction. Islam in Africa: challenging the perceived wisdom. In S Reese (Ed.) The transmission of learning
in Islamic Africa. Leiden: Brill
Sadgrove P (2004) From Wadi Mizab to Unguja: Zanzibars scholarly links. In S Reese (Ed.) The transmission of learning in
Islamic Africa. Leiden: Brill
Sharif A (1987) Slaves, spices and ivory in Zanzibar. London: James Currey
Trimingham JS (1964) Islam in East Africa. New York: Books for Libraries
TEXTUAL SOURCES ON AN ISLAMIC AFRICAN PAST: ARABIC MATERIAL IN ZANZIBAR'S NATIONAL ARCHIVE 359
Picture credits
Cover manuscript: An example of North p. 25: manuscript from the Mamma inscriptions from Arabic Medieval
African script from the Ahmed Baba Haidara Library, Vol. 1, 52 Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali:
Collec-tion, catalogue no. 557, Tanbih al- p. 53, 54, by Jonathan M Bloom Epigraphy, Chronicles, and Songhay-
Anam fi bayani ulumi maqami nabiyina Tuareg History, by PF de Moraes Farias
Muhammad, by Abdul Jalil b. Azum Al- p. 58: Leeds University, Ms. 301, fol. 3a, (2004), published by Oxford University
Qayrawani. D. 971 hijri. Image supplied by after Brockett 1987: fig. 2, supplied by Press and The British Academy, reprinted
the SAMali Project Sheila S Blair here with kind permission of The British
Cover photograph: DHK Architects p. 62: after Quaritch 1995: 73, supplied Academy
by Sheila S Blair pp. 116, 117, 118: IRSH/UAM, images
p. 63: after Brockett 1987: fig. 1, supplied supplied by Moulaye Hassane
Maps: Adapted from authors versions by by Sheila S Blair
Jenny Young p. 164: supplied by Jean Boyd and Beverly
p. 65 (left): Bibliothque Nationale, Arabe Mack
402, slide purchased and supplied by pp. 266, 267: courtesy of Abdel Kader
pp. xvi, 5, 8, 18, 20, 2829, 33, 34, 36, Sheila S Blair Haidara and supplied by the Tombouctou
77, 9293, 111, 124, 135, 137, p. 65 (right): after Blair 2005: fig. 12.15, Manuscript Project
190191, 234, 235, 240, 249, 251, 253, supplied by Sheila S Blair p. 283: supplied by Mukhtar b. Yahya al-
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John Hunwick
Boston College, and
Professor Emeritus and
Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair
Director Yahya Ould el-Bara
of Islamic Art
Institute for the Study of Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Islamic Thought in Africa Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Northwestern University, USA Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Hamid Bobboyi
Director
Shamil Jeppie Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh
Arewa House Centre for
Senior Lecturer and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
Historical Documentation and Research
Director, Tombouctu Project University of Metz, France
Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria
Department of Historical Studies
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Mohammed Ould Youbba
Timothy Cleaveland
Adjunct Director-General
Associate Professor
Murray Last Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic
African Studies Institute
Professorial Research Associate Studies and Research, Mali
University of Georgia, USA
Centre of African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
Charles C Stewart
Muhammad Diagayet University of London, UK
Interim Associate Provost for
Researcher
International Affairs and
Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic
Beverly B Mack Professor
Studies and Research, Mali
Professor of African Studies Department of History
University of Kansas, USA University of Illinois, USA
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Professor
Mahamane Mahamoudou Haoua Taore
Department of Philosophy
Pedagogical Advisor Assistant Curator
Northwestern University, USA
Pedagogical Animation Centre of Timbuktu, Fondo Kati Library, Mali
Director
Paulo F de Moraes Farias ISESCO-AMAI Library, and
Mukhtar bin Yahya al-Wangari
Honorary Senior Research Fellow Teacher of Islamic Sciences, Mali
Director and curator
Centre of West African Studies
Al-Wangari Library, Mali
University of Birmingham, UK
Aslam Farouk-Alli
Political Counsellor
Department of Foreign Affairs and
Former Researcher
Tombouctou Project
University of Cape Town, South Africa
CONTRIBUTORS 361
Editorial notes Glossary
literated accordingly, though local pronunciations vary consid- awliya saints; friends of Allah
erably (for example, Amadu for Ahmad, Usman for Uthman). balad village or town; district
We have tried to maintain consistency in spellings but have baraka blessings, supernatural powers
also included spellings as commonly used in Francophone bihari from Bihar; a distinctive calligraphic style
Africa, thus the Ahmed Baba Insitute is spelled thus because used in India
of its usage in Mali but we have used Ahmad Baba to refer to Bilad al-Sudan the SaharoSahelian land across middle Africa
the scholar as this is consistent with our transliteration from the Atlantic to the Red Sea
method. dajjal anti-Christ
diwan register or poetry collection
Dates
Correspondence of hijri and Gregorian dates was calculated dhikr (pl. adhkar) remembrance of Allah; repetition of a prayer
using Faik Resit Unats Hicri tarihleri miladi tarihe cevirme dunya earth; refers to the world as lower and
kilavuzu (Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1994). If temporary and deceptive
unstated, the date is from the Gregorian calendar; we have emir (pl. umara) prince; commander, political leader
only indicated both dates when the original date in a falsafa philosophy
manuscript is hijri. Some minor divergences might exist since faqih (pl. fuqaha) jurist
months are set according to the sightings of the new moon. fatiha opening chapter of the Quran
The order of the months in the hijri year is as follows:
fatwa (pl. fatawa) legal opinion, response
Muharram, Safar, Rabi I, Rabi II, Jumada I, Jumada II, Rajab,
Shaban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qada, Dhu al-Hijja. The fiqh Islamic substantive law, jurisprudence
months are of either 29 or 30 days, and a complete year is hadarat a Muslim person of high spiritual status or an
355 days. A hijri (lunar) century is approximately 97 Gregorian elderly person; any person who is present; a
(solar) years. manner of addressing a respected person
hadith prophetic tradition
hajj the ritual pilgrimage
halal that which is wholesome and permissible
hamziyya A poem where each stanza ends with the
letter hamza
haqiqa truth, divine reality (used in Sufism)
haram that which is prohibited
hijra migration
hijri The Muslim calendar
ifta the act of issuing religiouslegal verdicts
ijaza (pl. ijazat) teaching authorisation
ikhlas sincerity
GLOSSARY 363
Index
Given the dificulty of alphabetising Arabic names, the following conventions are used: people who have clear family names such as al-Kunti,
al-Arwani, etc. are listed under their family names; and people whose names do not give full lineage, are abbreviated, or contain titles by
which they have become known, are listed according to their first name, for example, Ahmad Baba, Nana Asmau, Sonni Ali.
INDEX 365
production 152156 Chad xiii, 120, 304, 305
Sokoto Caliphate 135158 children, education 166167
storage 147, 152, 155 China 32, 4546
trade 5, 14, 135138, 142147 Christianity 78, 137, 151, 182, 336, 337338, 340, 357
transport 136 chronical tradition see tarikh genre
vulnerability 147 Clapperton, H 135
womens ownership 141 colonialism 1314, 112, 119, 188, 267, 292, 340341
see also manuscripts colophons 64, 65
Borno, books 136, 137, 138, 143, 145, 146, 157 Comit Militaire de Liberation Nationale xiii
Bornu 52, 64, 65, 111, 132 conservation and preservation 79, 269, 296298
Boudjebha 311 copyists 11, 71, 143, 151152, 154
Boularaf, Ahmad 271272, 312 forgery and 150
library of 311, 326 Corbin, Henry 21
Boutilimit 307, 321, 322 Cordova Quran 6869
Arabic Manuscript Management Database (AMMS) 324 cosmology 2122
Boyle, Helen 175, 176 Cte dIvoire xiii, 140, 201, 309, 313, 314
Brenner, Louis 11 Coulibaly, Biton xii
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Brockelmann, Carl
Geschichte der arabischen Literatur 303 D
brotherhoods see Sufi brotherhoods Dalail al-khairat (al-Jazuli) 141
Buddhism 46, 55 Dandarawiyya 305
Bukhari 203, 307 dan Fodio, Shaykh Abdullahi 125, 129, 130, 173, 306
Sahih 69, 282 Diya al-Hukkam 171
al-Burad al-muwasha fi qat al-matami wa al-rusha Hausa poem 128
(Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al- Kunti) 220 Masalih al-insan al-muta alliqa bi al-adyan 170
Burda (al-Busiri) 174 Mulkin audu 127
Burkhardt, John Lewis 54 Tazyin al-waraqat 128
Burkina Faso xiii, 309, 313 Wakar sira 128
al-Busiri dan Fodio, Shaykh Uthman 114, 119, 123, 125130, 136, 150,
Burda 174 165, 169176, 173, 306, 238, 239
Babuwol kire 125, 128
C Bayan wujub al-hijraala l-ibad 138, 171
Cairo 5, 157, 172, 327, 337, 345 Boneji Hausa 125126
al-Azhar University 166, 278 Duniyayel 127
Madrasa Ibn Rashiq 52 Hasotobe 126
see also Egypt Ihya al-Sunna 128, 170
calligraphy 5971, 151, 295296, 322, 326 Qadiriyya 128
Andalusia 61, 66 Sujud al-sahwi 128
characteristics of West African 6061 Wasuyeji 126
development in West Africa 6972 Yimre Jahima 127
locations of production 6569 Darfur 54, 153, 305, 334
Maghribi script 5972, 136 al-Daysafi al-Imyari, Muhammad b. Muslim 83
Morocco 61, 66, 68, 69 al-Daysafi, Muhammad al-Timbukti 8389
Quranic manuscripts 6165 de Gironcourt, Georges-Reynard 101102
teaching 7071 de Sardan, Olivier 104105
Tunisia 66 Dhikr al-niswa al-muta abbidat al-Sufiyyat (Abu Abd al-Rahman
Camara, Seydou 21 al-Sulami) 173
catalogues 11, 149, 274, 289, 299, 322, 326, 328 Dhikr al-wafayat wa-ma hadath min alumur al-izam
Catholic Church 78 (Mawlay al-Qasim b. Mawlay Sulayman) 9697
Cedrab (Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Ahmed Baba) Dia, archaeology 37
see Ahmed Baba Institute Diarra, NGolo xii
Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan 303, 310 digitisation 298299
INDEX 367
University of Ghana 77, 310315 I
see also Wagadu Ibadites 193
al-Ghayth, Muhammad 84, 88 Iberian Peninsula see Spain
al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid 24 Ibn Abi Talib, Ali 21
al-Ghunya li-talibi tariqi al-haqq (Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani) 196 Ibn Abi Zayd
girls education 167 Risala 236
see also children; women Ibn Arabi
Gobir 125 al-Futuhat al-makkiyya 172
Godaben Gaskiya (Nana Asmau) 169 Ibn Badis, Tamim ibn al-Muizz 48, 49, 63
Goro, Baba (Durar al-hisan fi akhbar bad muluk al-Sudan) 95 Ibn Battuta 4, 69, 266
Granada 52, 68, 135, 275, 278 Ibn Bawn 222
Gualata see Walata Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad
Guinea xiii,120, 201, 306, 307, 316, 317 Musnad 257
Gummi, Abudakar 145 Ibn Haukal xii
Gwari, Malam Muhammadu Na Birnin 129130 Ibn al-Jawzi
Sifat al-safwat 173
H Ibn Khaldun 61, 66, 195
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INDEX 369
Khalil b. Ishaq al-Kunti, Sidi Muhammad 197, 208209, 231245
Mukhtasar 167, 198, 236, 281, 282, 333 education 236237
Khalwatiyya 112 al-Futuhat al-qudsiyya bi-l-ajwiba al-Fullaniyya 235
Kharijites 51 Kitab al-taraif wa al-talaid 200201, 214215, 237, 323
Khartoum 333 moralist and adviser 238245
Khaybar 21 al-Risala al-ghallawiyya 232
al-Khudri, Abu Said 203, 207 al-Kunti al-Wafi, Sayyid al-Mukhtar b. Ahmad b. Abi Bakr 185
Khulasa (Muhammad ibn Malik) 213 Kyamagha dynasty 96
Kiran Ahmada (Nana Asmau) 174
Kitab al-nakhl (Abu Hatim al-Sijistani) 49 L
Kitab al-nasiha (Muhammad Bello) 172 Labat, Shaykh 224
Kitab qamus al-Shariyya (Jumayyil b. Khamis Saidi) 351 al-Lakhmi
Kitab al-rahma fi al-tib wa al-hikma (Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti) 356 al-Qasaid al-witriyyam 174
Kitab al-taraif wa al-talaid (Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti) 200201, al-Lamfil-ishara li-hukm tibgh (Ahmad Baba) 136
214215, 237, 323 language, Qurans influence on 113115
Knappert, J 341342, 343 al-Laqani, Ibrahim
Koki, Alhaji Mahmudu 148 Jawharat al-tawhid 128
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INDEX 371
Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Ali Sila, 8889 Niamey 311
Muhammad b. al-Sabbagh, 124 Niane, DT 104105
Muhammad Bello, 24, 123, 135, 157 Niasse, Ibrahim 316
al-Gaith 171 Niger Bend, archaeology 3141
Fainna maal al-ursin yusra 174 Nigeria xii, 136, 140, 157, 165167, 172, 202, 303, 306, 316
Infaq al-maysur 127, 128, 169, 170, 173 University of Ibadan 303, 307, 310
Ishara wa ilam 145 see also Borno; Fulanis; Hausaland, Kano; Sokoto Caliphate
Kitab al-nasiha 173 Nile Valley 334
Talkis al-maqasid 170 Nkrumah, Kwame 77
Tibb al-hayyun 170 nomads 3, 80, 118, 135, 198, 337
Tibb al-nabi 170 Northern History Research Scheme 138
Yimre jihad 128 Northwestern University 140, 304, 310, 312, 327
Muhammad, Prophet see Prophet Muhammad Notice historique 9596, 104
Muhammad Raji b. Abi Bakr Nouakchott, Arabic Manuscript Management Database (AMMS)
Alamaaji ngirbuki 130 324325
Mukhtariyya 198 Nubia 333, 334
Mukhtasar (Khalil b. Ishaq) 167, 198, 236, 281, 333 Nuzhah al-rawi wa bughyah al-hawi (Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar
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madh al-nabi 128 Saad, Elias A Social History of Timbuktu 79, 186
Mawlid al-Nabi 182 al-Sadi, Abd al-Rahman
sira 115, 127, 128, 171 Tarikh al-Sudan 22, 8081, 86, 89, 9596, 100, 102,
sirr and 203 103104, 105, 278
Tibb al-nabi 170 Sahih (Bukhari) 68, 69, 282
Sahih (Ibn Khuzayma) 257
Q Sahih (Muslim) 257, 282
Qadiriyya 111112, 165, 172, 194, 195, 196202, 236, 238, 316 al-Sahili, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim (al-Tuwayjin) 52
Qadiriyya (Shaykh Abdullahi dan Fodio) 127, 194, 195 Sahiliyya 305
Qalhati, Muhammad b. Said Said, Sayyid 350
al-Maqama al-Kilwiyya 345 SAMali project see South AfricaMali Project
al-Qamus al-muhit (Firuzabadi) 143 Sambo b. Ahmad, Muhammad 150
Qarawiyyinia Madrasa, Fez 166 Sankore 271, 314
al-Qasaid al-witriyyam (al-Lakhmi) 174 Sankore (journal) 290
Qasida fi al-nasiha wa al-irshad wa al-tawassul (Shaykh Sidi Sankore Mosque xii, 77, 278, 279 314
al-Mukhtar al-Kunti) 225 Sankore, University of 77, 278, 279, 314
Qasr Ibrim 333 al-Sanusi, Muhammad b. Ali b. Yusuf 305
Quran 4849, 109, 110, 113, 135, 136, 249, 250 al-Aqida al-sughra 124, 143
African traditional religion and 113, 115116 Umm al-Barahin 128
calligraphy 5972 Sanusiyya 112, 305
Cordova Quran 6869 Sarkin Kano Library 141, 145
education and 166167 Saudi Arabia 316
language and 113115, 120 Savama-DCI (Sauveguarde et Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la
Leeds Quran 63, 69, 70, 71 Dfense de la Culture Islamique) 11, 269
literacy and 166 scripturalism 351352
manuscripts 61 Sgou xii, 139, 202
paper and 4849 Arabic Manuscript Management Database (AMMS) 325326
sex and the 183 Inventaire de la Bibliothque Umarienne de Sgou 309, 325
al-Shaykh al-Kabir (Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti) and 216 self-rewriting 19, 2122
sirr and 203 Senegal xii, xiii, 120, 201, 306, 307, 310
Quranic schools 19, 111, 112, 119, 120, 141, 175 University of Ifan 267
see also madrasas see also Dakar
Quranic script see ajami sexuality 183184
Quran, The (Nana Asmau) 169 al-Shadhili, Abu al-Hassan 195
al-Quti 135 Shadhiliyya 195
INDEX 373
Shafiite 196 Sufi brotherhoods
Shahuci judicial school, Kano 141, 145, 147 Ahmadiyya Idrisiyya 305
sharia law 118, 126, 128, 169 al-Bakkaiyya 195, 198, 200209
Shariff, Ibrahim Noor 341342 Dandarawiyya 305
Sharuddan Kiyama (Nana Asmau) 169 Khalwatiyya 112
al-Shaykh al-Kabir see al-Kunti, Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar Mukhtariyya 198
al-Shifa (al-Qadi al-Ayad) 252 Naqshabandiyya 194
Shihab al-akhbar 61 Qadiriyya 111112, 165, 172, 194, 195, 196202, 236,
Shinqitti scholars 135 238, 316
Sidiyya al-Kabir, Shaykh 237, 307, 324 Rashidiyya 305
Sifat al-safwat (Ibn al-Jawzi) 173 Sahiliyya 305
al-Sijistani, Abu Hatim Sanusiyya 112, 305
Kitab al-nakhl 49 Shadhiliyya 195
Simt al-huda (al-Tawzari) 174 Tijaniyya 112, 165, 172, 194, 195, 315316
sira (biographies of the Prophet) 115, 127, 128, 166, 167, 171, Sufism 11, 111112, 167, 168, 172174, 1946, 201, 213, 305,
236, 336 306, 338, 352
sirr (secret science) 202208 women 141
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Tazyin al-Waraqat (Shaykh Abdullahi dan Fodio) 128 Futuhat al-rabbaniyya 24, 26
Tempels, Father Placide al-Tuwayjin see al-Sahili, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim
Bantu Philosophy 23
Tennyson, Alfred 31 U
three crescents watermarks 50, 53, 64, 70, 148, 153 Umar b. Abd al-Aziz 340, 354
Tibb al-hayyun (Muhammad Bello) 170 Umar b. al-Khattab, 239, 240, 241
Tibb al-nabi (Muhammad Bello) 170 Umaru, Alhaji see Tall, al-Hajj Umar
al-Tijani, Ahmad 195, 315316 Umm al-Barahin (Muhammad b. Ali Yusuf al-Sanusi) 128
Tijaniyya 112, 165, 172, 194, 195, 315316 Unesco 6, 120, 267, 284, 288
Timbuktu Memory of the World Register 9, 349
Arabic Manuscript Management Database (AMMS) 326327 Universit Anta Diop, Dakar 307
archaeology 3141 universities 7778
biophysical envoronment 3335 University of Bergen, Norway 304, 334
education 278279, 314, 7779 University of Cape Town, Tombouctou Manuscript Project vi, 11,
founding xii, 31 181189
history xiixiii, 35, 7889, 95105, 277278, 287288 University of Dar es Salam 335
libraries see libraries University of Ghana 77, 310
lineages 7789 University of Ibadan 307, 310
Mbeki visit 19 University of Ifan, Dakar 267
Project see South AfricaMali Project University of Illinois ix, 307, 324
representations of 1213, 31 University of Niamey 311
Sankore Mosque xii, 77, 278, 279, 314 University of Sankore 77, 278, 314
scholarship 7789 urbanism 32, 35, 3740
tarikh genre 9598, 100105 Usul (al-Subki) 281
tourism 291 Uthman, al-Faqih 8389
trade 5
travel to 25, 9, 12 V
University of Sankore 77 vellum 137, 155156, 274
al-Tirmidhi see also parchment
Jami 257 Venice, paper 47, 53
Togola, Trba 39
Tombouctou Manuscript Project (University of Cape Town) vi, 11, W
181189 waazi poetry 126127
Tour, Amadou Toumani xiii Wadi el-Ahmar 40
INDEX 375
Wagadu xii Wolof 317
see also Ghana women
Wahhabis xiii book ownership 141
Wakar sira (Shaykh Abdullahi dan Fodio) 128 education 141, 165166, 168, 175
Walata 8089 scholars 141, 165177
history 232, 277 Sufism and 141
lineages 7789 writing boards (allo) 151, 155
scholarship 7789
topography 80 Y
al-Wali, Sidi Ahmad 89 Yan Izala 139
Wallah 167 Yan Taru 141
al-Wallati, Muhammad Yahya ibn Salim 251252 Yimre Jahima (Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio) 127
al-Wangari, al-Imam Mahmud 282 Yimre jihad (Muhammad Bello) 128
Wangari Library 282285, 311 Yoruba 131, 145
al-Wangari, Muhammad Baghayogho ix, 10, 279282 al-Yusi, Abu Ali-Hasan b. Masud 173
education 281282
library 282285, 311 Z
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